They came. They saw. They spent.

They are the people who visited Story County during 1998.

And together, they opened their wallets to the tune of $86.5 million, placing Story County at 11th among Iowa’s 99 counties ranked by the economic impact of travel expenditures in 1998.

The ranking is based on a study prepared by the U.S. Travel Data Center in Washington, D.C. The center prepares such studies for any state that wishes to pay for the service.

LuAnn Reinders, marketing manager with the Iowa Division of Tourism, said the center’s services cost about $23,000 this year for Iowa.

“Most states use the Data Center’s numbers,” Reinders said. “Some other states create their own model [of measurement] or hire another private research firm, but this survey is the standard and the one that most of the states use. The U.S. Travel Data Center is considered the source for state tourism numbers.”

The study, which was released by the Division of Tourism at the Iowa Tourism Conference held Oct. 18-20, uses data from categories such as highway transportation, hotel/motel bookings, campground services, amusement and recreation services, gas stations, grocery stores, automobile rental, restaurants and eateries and general retail sales to estimate how much money is generated in each county by travelers.

The definition of “traveler” includes both state residents and out-of-state visitors traveling away from home overnight in paid accommodations or on day trips to places 100 miles or more away from their homes.

“It’s important to note that these numbers are estimates,” Reinders said. “Obviously, you can’t look at how much money an outlet generates and pinpoint to the exact cent how much of that is coming from travelers, but these numbers are as close as we can get.”

Story County saw an increase of 3.25 percent in its travel expenditures from 1997, a year in which the county had $83.8 million. The county has experienced an increase each year over the last five years, with total expenditures rising from a low of $66.8 million in 1994. The Iowa Division of Tourism has purchased the U.S. Travel Data Center study for five successive years.

Rich Harter, executive director of the Ames Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Ames and Iowa State contribute a “significant” amount to Story County’s total.

“I wish we could give an exact number, but we can’t,” he said. “The numbers are purely countywide. Still, based on the size of Ames and the events that take place here both in and out of the university, I would say that we easily account for around 90 percent of the nearly $86.5 million total.”

Harter said annual Ames events such as the Iowa Games help bolster the number of people traveling through the area. He also cited other factors, such as a high number of university-related conferences and Ames’ location along Interstate 35, as reasoning for the continual flow of visitors.

“Ames, with Iowa State University, is the leading university-based conference/event community in the country,” he said.

“ISU is an active university that recognizes the value of bringing people here to experience the area, and the city’s relationship with the university has been very positive because of that,” he said.

Harter expects that the numbers for 1999 will reach even higher, with events such as the Family Motor Coach Association’s national convention and the Iowa Republican Party Straw Poll held during the past year.

“We should definitely see a decent-sized jump due to those events,” he said. “Both of them brought in a sizable number of people to our city.”

Complete numbers from U.S. Travel Data Center studies for 1994 through the current 1998 study are available on the Iowa Division of Tourism’s Web site at www.traveliowa.com/research/county_impact.htm.