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Mahoning County tourism dollars rose in 2015
By Kalea Hall
BOARDMAN
Hospitality is big business in Mahoning County.
“We have plenty to offer here,” said Linda Macala, executive director of the Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
What we have to offer brought in more money to the local economy in 2015 than it had in 2013, according to a study the state releases every two years.
The county saw $542 million in direct spending at hotels, restaurants and other hospitality-based businesses, Macala said at a Boardman Civic Association meeting focused on hospitality Monday night.
In total, direct and indirect visitor spending in the county was $821 million in 2015.
Tourism supported more than 9,500 jobs in 2015, the biannual study conducted by Longwoods International and Oxford Economics found.
The study found that visitor spending statewide brought $42 billion into Ohio’s economy and supported more than 484,000.
In 2013, visitor spending generated $751 million in direct and indirect sales in the county, according to The Vindicator archives.
“Mahoning County is a perfect destination,” Macala told a crowd of about 40 at the association meeting. “We want them to come here and spend money. As they spend that money, it’s an economic driver for the [county].”
The visitors bureau works to promote the county to get people here, Macala explained.
When visitors come here, they stay at one of the 40 hotels, inns or motels the county has to offer.
One of those hotels is the Holiday Inn in Boardman.
Michael Moliterno, general manager of the Holiday Inn, said the hotel always has done well among the other Holiday Inn locations for its service. The hotel ranks No. 45 out of 850 Holiday Inn locations in the nation, Moliterno said.
“Boardman is a great place to have a business,” he said.
The hotel industry here was booming from 2012-2014 with the oil and gas industry, but in 2015, the business started to slow down, as did the oil and gas industry.