Tourism matters in Indiana, as visitor spending brings cash to communities, creates jobs, enhances local economies and improves the quality of life for residents.

According to Indiana Destination Development Corp., travel and tourism also heighten cultural awareness, help create a sense of place for a community and can provide shared experiences to connect friends and families across generations. A community cannot be a great place to visit if it’s not first a great place to live.

Tourism has been back in Jackson County like wildfire in 2022, everything is booming and it has been a great year for tourism, said Arann Banks, executive director of the Jackson County Visitor Center.

“I think some of it was the perfect storm because the fair had great weather, except for a couple of rainy days, but they had great attendance at the fair and sold lots of tickets to shows,” Banks said. “Oktoberfest and Fort Vallonia Days had beautiful weather, too, so I think we got really lucky.”

She said everybody was ready to get out again, and it was a combination of people who are still a little skittish and don’t feel as skittish outdoors and people who are no longer skittish are great to go outdoors.

“I think for the first time since COVID, everybody was ready to get outside and they did, so everything here was really well attended,” Banks said. “We had a lot better year than I anticipated.”

She said the pandemic didn’t hit here as hard, and overall, the restaurants and hotels and tourism partners are saying they had a great year. There are a few that plateaued, and one restaurant owner said he was OK with that, and when you’re in this business, you get used to the ups and downs, so it didn’t bother him.

“I think a lot of people are back and running, but business travel is still a little bit behind everything else, but that’s a nationwide thing,” Banks said. “They’ve learned how to do business without as much travel, and a lot of the wining and dining might be out, so travel is intentional and it’s business as opposed to maybe recruitment travel or entertainment travel. “

Banks won’t have the final number for last year’s innkeeper’s tax until later this month, and she’s excited to see those. In 2020, Jackson County tourism was only down about 25% or 30%.

“Some counties were down substantially, and it was just devastating, but we really weren’t down as much as others, and then last year, our totals really weren’t bad,” she said. “We were back to about the 2017 numbers, and then 2019 was our biggest year ever.”

She said the county didn’t lose any hotels, although some switched hands, and everyone who talks about event planning, such as the festivals and fairs, were all reporting good years.

“The biggest festival/event draws in Jackson County are the Jackson County Fair, Oktoberfest and Fort Vallonia Days,” Banks said. “Those three are probably the biggest in visitation. Then other popular events are HOPE Medora Goes Pink, Medora Christmas Parade, Fruhlingsfest, KilnFest and Crothersville Red, White and Blue Festival.”

The Jackson County Watermelon Festival in Brownstown is being resurrected Aug. 4 and 5, 2023, for the first time since 2015 after being canceled in 2016. Information about the festival will be released soon.

Banks said the Jackson County Fair is one of the few free fairs left in the state, and with that, it’s hard to measure the attendance. It’s the same with the Oktoberfest.

“I’ve been told it’s about 100,000 people for each one, and that sounds pretty close, and if you look at Oktoberfest, 30,000 a day is probably about right,” Banks said. “I’m working toward being able to get a better number for that, but the things we can measure are baseball and softball tournaments, which are huge, running from April to October. Then of course, speedway (Brownstown) attendance and a few of the others.”

She said it’s different from their fest numbers, but they pick up the numbers from Brownstown Speedway and all of the travel ball team numbers.

“Nursing homes, funeral homes and hospitals are also partners because people visit from out of town for those reasons, but not a ton,” Banks said. “Healthy hospitals are an indicator of healthy tourism and vice versa.”

A good thing for tourism in Jackson County is picking up Airbnbs, Banks said.

“I know of three or four in downtown Seymour, and there will be two or three more opening downtown, not to mention other places in the county,” Banks said. “Our hotels are filling fast, and baseball and softball are only getting bigger. Everyone keeps asking me if it’s just a flash in the pan, but it’s not at all.”

She said there has been upwards of $7 million of economic impact this year just from baseball and softball teams, which runs April to October.

“When I started here in 2015, those numbers were $3.15 million, and it has just gotten bigger and bigger,” Banks said. “Tourism’s good here, and we’re kind of a unicorn compared to most as we’re a non-uniform county and a lot of things that we adhere to here, they don’t necessarily adhere to in other counties.”

She said everything they get goes straight into the county, but take Columbus for example, its visitor center is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, so it is bound much differently than Jackson County, so its money comes in a lot differently.

“We get 5% of every dollar spent in rentals 29 days or less at hotels, registered and licensed Airbnbs, Starve Hollow cabins (not campsites), Berry Branch Cottages and the future cottages being constructed at Chateau de Pique,” Banks said. “That innkeeper’s tax is 100% of my budget, as I get no money from the county, state or federal.”

For information about the Jackson County Visitor Center and events going on around the county, visit jacksoncountyin.com.