Can a State Funded Rural Economic Development Program Positively Impact the State’s Economy? A Case Study Application using Texas Department of Agriculture’s Rural Tourism Economic Development Program

In this paper, we review the tourism impact from supported tourism events and measure their economic value to the local economy. The economic values are the result of visitor spending and extrapolated to total event attendance creates economic values from the state-supported event. Communities receiving funding were responsible for collecting visitor surveys to measure consumer spending as well as the community completing a survey to record the investment cost of the event. The results were that state support represented 14 percent of the total event investment and total event value from visitor spending was $7.8 million for 31 events. The state percent share in value represents $1.1 million and considering the program-expended funds of $147,276 there is a $7.50 return for every $1 of state funding. Economic impacts from the funds add additional value and measure total economic value to Texas. We conclude that state supported programs focusing in the area of partial marketing support can create positive return on investment value of state funding.