Updated August 30, 2018

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Tourist Development Commissioner Kevin Triplett announced Tuesday that Tennessee tourism’s direct domestic and international travel expenditures reached a new all-time record high of $20.7 billion in 2017, up 6.3 percent over the previous year, as reported by the U.S. Travel Association.

For the 12th consecutive year, tourism topped $1 billion in state and local sales tax revenue, reaching $1.8 billion. Tourism also generated 184,300 jobs for Tennesseans.

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All 95 counties had an increase in tourism expenditures. Each county saw more than $1 million in direct economic impact from tourism. Five counties exceeded 1 billion in travel expenditures, including Davidson, Shelby, Sevier, Hamilton and Knox counties.

Area counties that saw a direct economic impact from tourism included Giles with a 25 million dollar return, Lawrence received just over 41 million dollars, Maury had a 134 million dollar impact from tourism spending, Marshall received over 23 million dollars, and Lincoln County also just over 23 million dollars in tourism spending.