The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau will celebrate National Travel and Tourism Week  with a public event from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 15, at the Visitors Center, 90 S. West Temple in the Salt Palace.

The public is invited to join members of the hospitality and travel communities for free iPod tours and a special abbreviated bicycle tour, along with a drawing for several “Salt Lake Connect” passes.

National Travel and Tourism Week began  last Saturday and continues through this coming Sunday, May 17th. The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau leaders and local government and business leaders are promoting the message that “Travel Matters.”  And to prove the point that travel really does matter locally they pointed out some rather remarkable statistics about Salt Lake City tourism.

For example,  In 2008, the Salt Palace hosted 273,974 convention delegates who, combined, spent more than $243 million while they were visiting in Salt Lake and generated nearly $22 million in tax revenue, the bureau said.

Here’s another impressive statistic reported by the Bureau…General visitor spending in Salt Lake County topped $1 billion in 2008, generating nearly $100 million in state, county and city taxes.

That’s a lot of money, so the next time you see a tourist or convention attendee walking around Salt Lake City, smile and go out of your way to be friendly to them…they are paying a lot (nearly $100 million) of our local taxes for us.

Click for more information from the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau

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