Unless you’ve been living under a bridge, the buzz these days in Klamath is about how busy it’s become. It seems there are people everywhere. Retail store lines have grown. Restaurant waits have increased. It’s tough to get a hotel/motel. More people downtown, including Sugarman’s Corner. And the traffic, we were actually not the first or second car at the South 6th and Washburn signal!

Some of this increase is typical considering the summer months are a time when school is out and people have a chance to enjoy Klamath’s great weather and seasonal activity offerings.

And some of the increase might be attributable to a recent media report by the United States Travel Association (USTA) which revealed Americans are not using their vacation time. In fact, Americans have accumulated more unused vacation than any other country on the planet. So much so, the U.S.T.A. has taken to encouraging Americans to use their vacation with a new national advertising campaign aptly titled: “Project Time Off”. In 2017, Americans forfeited $66.4 BB worth of vacation days.

And some of the increase might just be that your county tourism agency, Discover Klamath, has been actively promoting the region 52 weeks a year for some time now. While it’s hard to determine cause and effect from marketing campaigns, we do know the value of tourism in Klamath County continues to climb, making in-bound tourism a top economic driver to the region.

Dean Runyon and Associates is the company whose job is to figure out tourism economics in Oregon. They report every few years. Their most recent report pegs tourism in Klamath County near $150M annually. We think it’s closer to $200M annually. Smith Travel Research is another player that determines tourism economics. They track hotel/motel occupancy rates throughout Oregon. Their monthly data shows Klamath’s hoteliers are enjoying the best times ever. Hotel/Motel occupancy rates have never been higher. And, Klamath’s occupancy rates are outpacing the entire five-county Southern Oregon Region nearly 2:1.

What’s Driving This?

Crater Lake and Lava Beds are performing well and expected to continue attracting worldwide visitation. This bodes well for Klamath. According to the National Park Service (NPS) the economic impact of these Parks is over $80M annually. This is up from about $45M a few years ago. Crater Lake is expected to receive over 800K visitors this year, up from about 450K just a few years ago (see graph below). Crater Lake Park also established “Sister Park” agreements with much larger National Parks in China and Slovenia. The cultural exchange in future year cannot be estimated yet, but the Basin can expect to receive more visitors as a result of these new programs.

With a proposal to re-designate Lava Beds from a National Monument to a National Park, visitation will only increase to the Klamath Basin, although organic growth in visitation has been impressive in recent years (see graph below).

Crater Lake license plate sales have put $5M into the National Park Trust Reserve Fund. These funds will be used in 2018/19 to construct a new state of the art Visitor Center at Crater Lake next to the current Rim Village operation. This will solidify Crater Lake as a top-tier National Park.

Also, Discover Klamath has a five-year contract with the Park to produce and manage RIDE THE RIM. This cycling event has grown in recent years to become Oregon’s second largest cycling event – attracting nearly 5,000 cycling tourists to Klamath County from 33 states and 17 countries to cycle around the 33-mile Rim Drive when no vehicles are allowed on East Rim Drive.

Alternative lodging places, such as AirBnB and VRBO are growing in Klamath as well. The number of Hosted sites is up nearly 30% from 2017 to about 150; and, Klamath is only the 5th area in Oregon to establish a direct relationship with AirBnB Corporate whereby AirBnB will collect and remit lodging taxes back to the County (which in turn gets reinvested into tourism promotion).

And because of HB 4146, which passed two years ago, Regional Tourism Promotion dollars have increased threefold as the State is now required to reimburse regions 20% of lodging taxes, whereas previously there was nominal reimbursement only.

All in all, the outlook is good for continued tourism growth in the Region. Tourism favorably affects job retention and growth; spurs new start-up businesses, and is good for our local economy.

About the Author: Jim Chadderdon, Executive Director of Discover Klamath Visitor and Convention Bureau, works with a Team of tourism professionals whose mission is to improve Klamath’s economy by generating increased visitation to Klamath’s natural and cultural attractions.