National Travel & Tourism Week 2019

Why Travel Matters

We pass popular tourist sites like the Linesville Spillway every day; we may not even think of how it supports our community. But the Spillway and others like the Tara in Clark or Mark Twain Manor in Jamestown are the backbone of our community. These places define our towns, provide our families with jobs and have given us — and millions of visitors — a lifetime of memories.  

Travel matters, and it improves our area in ways that have a wide-reaching impact on all of us. Travel supports nearly 5,000 jobs in Mercer and Crawford counties, and it also has an impact that we do not always see: travel can strengthen families, foster hometown pride, and build bridges that connect us with one another.  

Travel Matters to America
At the national level, travel is critical to the U.S. economy and American jobs. As a leader in workforce development and career advancement–travel creates and supports 15.7 million jobs across the U.S.–making it the seventh-largest private sector employer. In 2018, traveler spending generated $171 billion in total tax revenue, including $78.6 billion in state and local revenue. That $78.6 billion can pay for a host of critical resources: it’s more than enough to pay all state and local police and firefighters, or the more than one million public high school teachers. 

Travel is powerful for cities and states, and we are proud to take our guests all across this great nation. Anderson Coach & Travel itself employs 300+ people as motorcoach and school bus drivers, mechanics, tour guides and office staff. 

Think back to your first job. Maybe you worked at Conneaut Lake Park or Pymatuning State Park or maybe your kids work there now. For many – one third of Americans to be exact – travel is the front door to a promising career. Americans whose first job in travel have an average career salary of $81,900, and two in 5 of those whose first job was in travel are now earning more than $100,000.

Think about how travel matters to us at Anderson over our 82 years of business: travel-dependent leisure and hospitality is the largest small business employer in the United States. On our tours, we endeavor to take you to as many mom-and-pop businesses as we can. Because we are one. And we're proud of what we do in the community, just like our travel friends out on the road. 

Those are only a few reasons why it’s so important to keep welcoming visitors to the Pennsylvania Great Lakes region—and why our industry is elevating the message of “Travel Matters” during National Travel and Tourism Week (NTTW) May 5-11. We encourage you to join us in observing NTTW this year, and celebrate all that travel does for your town, and for our country as a whole.

Travelers from the US and Canada spent $385 Million in Mercer County and $252 million in Crawford County in 2017*. Nearly 5,000 people are employed in the industry in these two counties alone. Transportation is the largest spending category in both counties and we’re proud to be the top motorcoach and school bus company in the area.

*Data provided by VisitMercerCountyPA via VisitPA.com and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.