Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports Reports $32M Economic Impact In 2021

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports on Tuesday reported a direct economic impact to the local community of $32.3 million in 2021, signaling a strong bounce back from the tourism downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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TTS President & CEO Kelsey Rush presented the economic impact numbers to members of the Tuscaloosa City Council's Finance Committee on Tuesday, which came as part of the agency's annual request for funding from the city.

As part of the data provided, Rush explained that 52 large-scale events held last year generated more than 21,000 room nights for local hotels.

"Our events that we are hosting created a lift in visitation," she said, before mentioning that TTS also received a wealth of granular data from one of its partners that tracked digital behaviors in Tuscaloosa during three of its biggest events over the summer.

The company used to collect the data — NEAR — is a privacy-led data intelligence platform that tracks visitor data through app usage. TTS used this platform to get a better understanding of the impact from visitors during the following events: The AHSAA Regional Softball Tournament, the Grand Slam Baseball Tournament, and the Dixie Youth Division II World Series at Bowers Park.

"Two of the three [the two baseball tournaments] had a lift in visitor spending," Rush said, explaining that data showed both events to have provided a 28% spending boost for the category compared to average days. "It helps us make informed decisions and helps us identify what events are and are not working."

For example, NEAR data showed the AHSAA Regional Softball Tournament did not result in a rise in local spending by visitors, which Rush said validates the previous decision to not renew the contract for the event for next year due to speculation that it was not generating room nights and noticeable economic impact.

"It requires a lot of time and money to put this on, so the return on investment [for the AHSAA tournament] was not there," she said.

The company then identified a total of 246 points of interest that saw an influx of visitors, including:

• University Mall
• Midtown Village
• Walmart - Tuscaloosa
• Shoppes at Legacy Park
• Snow Hinton Park
• Paul W. Bryant Museum
• Target
• The University of Alabama Quad
• Munny Sokol Park
• McFarland Plaza
• Shindig
• Lake Tuscaloosa
• University of Alabama Student Recreation Fields & Pool Complex
• Bowlero
• Tuscaloosa Riverwalk.

Rush said this data highlighted the fact that visitors who came to Bowers Park for the events were also out spending money in the community, thus resulting in a direct economic impact.

Following the presentation, Rush then requested a budget increase of approximately $250,000 from the City of Tuscaloosa, as the agency looks to invest in marketing the area's venues and offerings ... particularly the planned Saban Center and a proposed 30,000-square-foot event center for Tuscaloosa that are to be voted on Tuesday night by the Tuscaloosa City Council.

The new budget proposal would raise the TTS budget to $1.5 million for the 2023 fiscal year, with 53% going to payroll and 22% for marketing.

"Many of our organizations we're working with, they are already bidding out for events in 2024, 2025, 2026," Rush said. "That's why we need the budget, to be able to plan and be able to start promoting these new assets."

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