Parish received visitor boost in 2023, CVB reports
Nearly 64,600 more people visited Lincoln Parish from out of town in 2023 than in 2022.
That’s one of several metrics recently released by Experience Ruston that appears to show tourism in Lincoln Parish is on the rise.
The parish saw 423,400 unique visitors in 2023, up 18% from 2022. Total trips to the parish also went up by 7% for a total of more than 841,000 trips last year.
These figures come from proprietary intelligence data derived from visitors’ location signal on their cell phones. Folks who travel more than 50 miles to enter the parish count as a visitor, not including regular travelers like commuters.
And since emitting a location signal is a feature cell phone owners can disable, the statistics, while reliable, likely don’t capture the full count, tourism officials said.
“We are very pleased to see these positive tourism trends in our area,” Amanda Carrier, president and CEO of Experience Ruston, said in a release. “It has been an interesting few years for the travel and tourism industry, so seeing increases across the board is a great indicator of the health of our destination.”
The Ruston Lincoln Convention & Visitors Bureau, which goes by the marketing brand Experience Ruston, attributes the year-to-year rise in tourism to a continued social and economic emergence from the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as well as improvements in Lincoln Parish’s top tourism sectors such as sports and outdoors.
Data indicates the three biggest draws for visiting Lincoln Parish last year were Louisiana Tech University sports events, downtown Ruston and events at the Ruston Sports Complex, in that order.
It appears many travelers are making a weekend of it when they come to the area, as 57.2% of visitors stayed two or more days.
That translated to a 10% boost in revenue from the 4% occupancy tax Experience Ruston receives on hotel and motel stays in the parish.
The bureau uses those proceeds to promote tourism for the city and parish and awards grants for projects that look to grow the area’s appeal and quality of life.
In 2023 Experience Ruston awarded a total of $377,647.54 in grants and sports tourism support.
Grant projects included a new set of mountain bike flow trails and a concrete hub at Lincoln Parish Park that is almost complete, small livestock fencing and horse stall additions at the North Louisiana Exhibition Center, and a new foundation for the Autrey House Museum in Dubach.
The park and Expo Center projects were collaborations with the parish police jury.
“Our strategic partnership with the Lincoln Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau has allowed the parish to expand our presence as a regional tourist destination,” Parish Administrator Courtney Hall said.
Ruston’s most popular event also saw a boost as the Louisiana Peach Festival had more than 24,000 attendees in 2023, a 10% increase.
It was the third Peach Festival since Experience Ruston took over management of the event in partnership with the City of Ruston and Downtown Ruston.
“I think people are beginning to recgonize positive changes in the festival,” Carrier said. “And we believe that will only continue now that we’ve made the entire event free.”
The 2024 Peach Festival will be free to enter from beginning to end for the first time in its 70+ year history on June 1.
Experience Ruston plans to expand on this tourism impact data during National Travel & Tourism Week, set for May 19-25. More information about National Travel & Tourism Week will be available in April on ExperienceRuston. com.
