5-15-13 —     As the summer travel and tourism season is fast approaching, Wayne County received some great news last week, as Kentucky's Travel and Tourism Industry released their economic impact numbers for the past year.

    Wayne County, a member of the KY's Southern Shoreline Region, increased travel direct expenditures from $20,508,364 in 2011, to $21,431,240 in 2012, while total travel expenditures also increased to $33,689,909, after totaling $32,239,148 the previous year.

    "I think this shows our marketing efforts are paying off and we hope those numbers continue to improve.  We increased over 4.5 percent from last year, which is better than the state average and our three year growth totals over 11 percent," said Wayne County Judge- Executive Greg Rankin.

    Wayne County finished fourth in the 10-county Southern Shoreline region, as Pulaski County paced the area with $75,584,816, followed by Taylor, Russell and Wayne counties.  Adair, Clinton, Cumberland, McCreary, Casey and Green counties rounded-out the list.

    "Our Southern Shoreline Region reported a 3.2 percent growth from 2011, which we were above that and Wayne County has increased over  

3.1 million in direct expenditures the past three years.   We want to  

continue to market Wayne County and Lake Cumberland in our target areas, I really think we can have an even better year in 2013," said Wayne County Development/Tourism director Shannon Hutchinson.

    The economic study and impact was prepared by Certec, Inc. for the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet and was released earlier this tourism season.