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The main purpose of the welcome center is to
provide tourism information and assistance to travelers while encouraging
them to extend their stay in Iowa. Currently, we have approximately 400
brochures available from destinations throughout Iowa. Through surveys
completed by guests in the welcome center and compiled by the Iowa
department of Economic Development, in 2006, our facility encouraged 27.2%
of our guests to extend their stay in Iowa. The total estimated spending
by visitors to our center in 2006 for their one trip was $6,043,554 and
they spent an average of 5.5 days in Iowa. Over the past five years, the
average number of annual visitors to the welcome center has been 14,500.
Each year, we have visitors from all 50 states and on average six Canadian
providences and 20 foreign countries.
Approximately 50% of the operational expenses
for the village/welcome center are covered through the Harrison County
Conservation Board’s operations and maintenance budget. The other 50% is
covered by income generated from the sale of products in the Iowa Products
Store and admission fees from the village. |
