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http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/ind...17a5ed0b9d.html

Lu Ann Franklin Times Correspondent
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PORTER | Visitors to Porter County attractions helped grow the county’s tourism and travel industry by 5.9 percent annually from 2009 to 2011, Indiana Dunes Tourism officials said Tuesday during a newsconference at the Indiana Dunes Visitors Center.

Completed in November 2012, the report by Kentucky-based Certec Inc. compared the two years and revealed an uptick in economic growth on all fronts including direct expenditures, tax revenues, jobs and wages, said Executive Director Lorelei Weimer.

She said this is the fourth survey Certec has done for Indiana Dunes Tourism since 1994, and looked at spring, summer and fall seasons. The survey cost more than $5,200.

“We do this survey for four reasons – to better understand the economic impact tourism has in Porter County; the spending behavior of visitors; to understand the markets and to provide an evaluation for developers who want to invest in attractions here,” Weimer said.

The report said the tourism and travel industry contributed nearly $348.3 million to Porter County’s economy in 2011, an increase of more than $36.7 million over 2009. Those figures includes direct spending by tourists which accounted for $244.3 million of that total.