It was a record year for the state’s tourism industry.

Using data from 2017, the 2018 year-end study commissioned by the Indiana Office of Tourism Development said visitors to Indiana spent around $12.7 billion in the state, which equates to around $9 billion in total economic impact.

Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch tells Inside Indiana Business tourism is an economic development tool for the state because 72 cents of every tourism dollar spent in a community stays in that community. “You couple that with the amount of investment that’s been made in our Regional Cities (as well as) the investment that we just announced through our Stellar Regional designees, those investments that we’re making in quality of life in Indiana just speaks to what we’re about and that is what attracts people to Indiana,” Crouch said.

In 2017, 80 million people visited Indiana. Those visitors supported around 200,000 full-time jobs.