People faced economic hardship during the pandemic. Now that summer is upon us, one industry, in particular, will help bring some financial relief – tourism.
“Last year, tourists from out of state paid a billion dollars in taxes to the cities and the counties in the state of Alabama,” said Lee Director of the Alabama Tourism Department, Lee Sentell.
How is this possible?
“Tourists pay a lot of taxes when they come from Indiana and Ohio and Michigan when they’re heading south,” said Sentell.
“People are able to get out with their families, again, live normal lives, get the economy going. A lot of small businesses here were heavily crushed by this pandemic. So, these kind of events are terrific, they bring folks in from out of state. I met a lot of people from Mississippi and Tennessee here today. They get to come see Northern Alabama and the great things that go on here,” said Casey Wardynski, who is running for the Fifth Congressional seat for North Alabama.
