The Importance of Calaveras Tourism
California travel impact reports are prepared annually by Dean Runyan Associates for Visit California – the state’s destination marketing organization. You can access these customizable reports from the web application on Dean Runyan’s site in their California Travel Impacts report. Just click on Calaveras County in the California map to see data specifically pertaining to us. You can also explore the tourism impacts for other California counties by clicking on them in the map.
Current data for California is also available as a PDF in the report: California Travel Impacts by County.
Here are a few graphs with data on Calaveras County Tourism. Please bear in mind that data may lag a year or two behind the current year. As new data is analyzed, we will make the graphs available here. Click on the graphic to see in larger detail:
Total Direct Travel Spending in Calaveras County from 1992 to 2016
The graph below shows an upward trend for Calaveras County after the economic collapse of 2009.
Visitor Spending in 2016
Where are visitors spending their money in Calaveras County? As you can see from the graph below tourism directly impacts not only restaurants, lodging, retail shops and recreation, but also grocery stores and gas stations.
TOT Receipts for Calaveras County from 1992 to 2016
Besides supporting local lodging, recreation, retail and restaurant businesses, tourism brings in a tourism tax (called TOT or Transient Occupancy Tax) which is paid by visitors staying at local hotels and B&Bs. This tax is not paid by locals. It is paid by tourists to help support the marketing and infrastructure that tourism requires. Calaveras County’s TOT tax is currently at the lowest in the state at 6%, while Angels Camp’s TOT is at 10%.
The TOT goes into the general funds of both Angels Camp and unincorporated Calaveras County. The Calaveras Visitors Bureau receives the majority of its funding from a percentage of these TOT dollars. Currently we receive just over 13%* of the TOT from the City of Angels Camp and receoved 33% from Calaveras County’s TOT collections until 2017, when the County reduced the CVB funding to 25%.
Originally, the TOT funding was divided three ways and allocated to tourism, the Sheriff’s department and Public Works for road impacts. In 2017, the Board of Supervisors elected to bring the Calaveras fire districts into the TOT, giving each entity a quarter share, helping to cover the costs of emergency service call-outs due to increased tourism. The following graph shows the entire TOT collected for Calaveras County (including Angels Camp) from 1992 to 2016 (the most recent year’s data available).
*The TOT tax for the City of Angels Camp, was raised from 6% to 10% in 2003 with a measure promising a third of the increase to tourism. The measure passed at 86% and the Calaveras Visitors Bureau has received 1/3 of the 4% until 2017, at which time a new agreement was made, allowing the City to hold back $25,000 for tourism projects outside the scope of the CVB’s destination marketing.
See how the Calaveras Visitors Bureau markets the county in our Annual Report.