The following glossary of terms is provided to help define the metrics shared by Travel South Dakota in our quarterly Travel Insights e-newsletters. For further information, please contact Kirk Hulstein.
To receive the Travel Insights e-newsletter, be sure to subscribe to the Mile Marker (Travel South Dakota's monthly email to the tourism industry).
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Visitor
A visitor includes all overnight and day visitors – resident and non-resident – traveling outside of their usual environment, defined as beyond 50 miles.
Visitor Spending
The direct spending by visitors on lodging, food and beverage, retail, recreation, local transportation and air transportation within the state.
Visitor Impact
The dollar amount of direct, indirect and induced impacts of all tourism sales that are retained within the state.
WEBSITE INDICATORS
Web traffic is the data tracked from visitors to TravelSouthDakota.com, Travel South Dakota’s primary visitor promotion website. The values provided in the email represent the following:
Web Session
A series of interactions taken on TravelSouthDakota.com during a specified time frame by a user. A user may have multiple sessions within one time frame.
Website Pageview
Each time a visitor views a page on a website. The data in the email includes the total number of pages viewed within the specified date range. Repeated views of a single page are counted.
Time on Site
An average calculated from the total duration of all sessions on the website divided by the number of total sessions.
User
Someone who has had at least one session within the specified date range. The data includes both new and returning users.
ARRIVAL INDICATORS
Origin Markets
The Arrivalist platform monitors 130 million mobile devices in a nationally representative sample. An arrival is counted when a person (with a mobile device) travels 75 miles or more, is non-commuting, and spends a minimum of two hours in a community within South Dakota. The markets listed are the metro areas with the most arrivals to South Dakota.
REVENUE INDICATORS
Gaming Tax Revenue
Travel South Dakota's portion of the tax revenue generated by the Deadwood Gaming Tax.
Tourism Tax Revenue
The amount of revenue generated by the 1.5% Tourism Tax which applies to hotels and lodging establishments, campgrounds, motor vehicle and recreational equipment rentals, recreational services, spectator events and visitor attractions in the state.
HOSPITALITY INDICATORS
The data provided in the email is provided, with permission, by Smith Travel Research Inc./STR Global, Ltd. All data is processed by STR using both the current and historical sampling of hotels (properties of 15 rooms or more).
Hotel Occupancy
The total number of rooms sold, divided by rooms available, multiplied by 100. Occupancy is always expressed as an average percentage of rooms occupied.
Room Nights
The number of rooms sold or rented (excludes complimentary rooms).
Hotel Revenue
The total room revenue generated from the sale or rental of rooms.
FOR INFORMATION
Please contact Kirk Hulstein, Industry Outreach, Development & Research Director, for more information regarding these and other travel indicators at 605-773-3301 or [email protected].