RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) – Tourism is likely one of the largest industries in South Dakota, bringing in hundreds of thousands of individuals to the Black Hills and surrounding areas.

Wednesday, the Black Hills and Badlands Tourism Affiliation’s held their annual assembly to see the impression this yr’s vacationer season had on the area.

The 83rd annual assembly brings collectively folks concerned within the tourism business to debate the highs and lows of the 2022 season.

From August 2021 to August 2022 guests to the Black Hills and Badlands areas spent an estimated $2 billion, yielding a tax income totaling greater than $450 million.

“2022 has been one other nice yr for the Black Hills and Badlands, we had utterly anticipated that we’d be down after a banner yr of 2021. 2021 was completely unimaginable, however we’re rivaling 2021 this yr with our customer expenditures. And numbers are trying very, excellent,” mentioned Michelle Thomson, president and CEO for the Black Hills and Badlands Tourism Affiliation.

With rising inflation, growing the worth on issues like fuel and airfare many individuals needed to regulate their journey plans to account for the upper costs.

“With excessive inflation we definitely anticipated to see a a lot larger dip in tourism. We nonetheless have had a large number of folks on this space, spending has simply been a bit totally different. Individuals actually really feel entitled to take a trip, that’s their proper anymore to take a trip. So, persons are nonetheless touring, they’re simply spending a bit in another way,” mentioned Thomson.

Moreover, the tourism business within the Black Hills and Badlands supported greater than 21,000 jobs in 2021 accounting for 40% of all tourism jobs and eight.7% of South Dakota Jobs.

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