LT-2020-004 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Response 2.1: 1. Away fromtheir place of residence or business and staying overnight in paid accormrodations; Projection * Our target market includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, and British Columbia and is comprised of very diverse english and western horse related interests and disciplines. A major goal for the Park is to book large shows of 150 horses that run 2-41 days thereby causing more visitors to stay overnight. Overnight stays increase Park revenues from stall fees, RV camper hook-ups, arena fees and other use charges. Having people stay overnight also increases opportunities for visitors to patronize local businesses. We have been able to build and maintain participation in our larger, multi -day events that have significant influence on the number of total visitor days the Park generates. A portion of the medium and smaller size events change each year as organizers seek a new experience or need to rotate to other geographic areas to serve their constituents. For that reason, we believe the best measure for evaluating the Park's success in contributing to economic impact is by looking at the overall totals of all activities,for the season. We obtained residence information from 4,052 visitors this year, wfio came from throughout Washington, 13 other states, Canada and a few foreign countries. The overall number of visitor days has been fairly constant over the past few years because we have just four outdoor arenas to rent. We critically need a fifth arena and a covered competition space in order to grow the size, diversity and length of season we can host events. Thankfully, we currently are building a large covered arena that will address these limitations starting in 2020: extending our season from 23 to 33 weekends and adding more competition space will significantly add to visitor numbers over time and is key to our long term sustainability. A covered arena will also attract local riders at all times of the year and especially off season, however it remains to be seen how much the facilites will be utilized in the depths of winter. The attached Economics Metrics Table reflects total visitors for the past five years and this season. This table tracks growth in total visitor traffic and annual economic benefits. With the opening of the covered arena we expect the growth trend to pickup starting in 2020 by about 10%, but it will take several years to realize its full potential in attracting visitors and driving economic benefits.. 2500 character lint