Tourism Economics/Oxford Economics, a consultancy, and Longwoods International, a tourism research firm that measures ROI on marketing campaigns, have created a new tool kit that assists DMOs with getting out their message about the value of the local visitor industry. Three primary tools comprise the kit:

• Visitor Economic Impact: An analysis that monitors both the successes and needs of the DMO. This answers such questions as how much of the city/county budget is generated by visitors; how tax receipts compare with annual investment in development of the visitor economy; and what the average household would need to pay in taxes if visitors stopped coming.
• Meetings and Events Impact Calculator: This tool quantifies event benefits and provides a case for DMO development of the meetings sector. It calculates ROI of an event to participants, and can be used by planners to drive participation to their events.
• Visitor Volume Counts: Longwoods Travel USA studies American business and leisure travel habits with 2 million members of an online panel. The huge traveler sample especially benefits smaller and midsize destinations. It includes data from the Meetings and Events Impact Calculator.