Despite the declining economy and rising price of oil, many people are still traveling, keeping Virginia tourism jobs afloat.

During 2007, Virginia’s tourism industry created 4,957 jobs and generated $85 million in wages and salaries. Local property and sales taxes created an income of $15 million, according to an article by WCAV.

The Virginia Tourism Corporation released the 2007 statewide tourism economic impact figures at its recent tourism conference, followed by local statistics. Virginia receives its annual economic impact data from the Travel Industry Association of America.

Visitors to Virginia spent most of their time and money in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The state’s tourism industry brought in $1.2 billion in state and local tax revenue.

“The state tax revenue derived from tourism is enough to pay the salaries and benefits of 11,500 new state police officers or educate 78,000 Virginia students,” the article notes. “The 2007 total of all local taxes generated by tourism in Virginia was $529.2 million, enough to pay the salaries of 12,000 elementary school teachers and staff.”

Virginia’s leisure and hospitality industry employed 344,900 people in July 2008, a decrease of .1 percent from last year, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state’s leisure and hospitality industry increased from last year every month this year except in July, by 1.9 percent in February, by 1.4 percent in March, by 1.1 percent in April, by 1.3 percent in May and by .3 percent in June.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Virginia, Jobs, Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.