NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) – Last week, North Platte welcomed hundreds of agricultural college students from across the country for the North American Colleges and Teachers in Agricultural Judging Competition. For four days, students, faculty and other staff spent money at local restaurants, hotels and other fun activities. Now those dollars are fueling North Platte’s economy.
“My estimate is that the NACTA tournament raised approximately $200,000 from facility rentals, food and tank filling,” said Lisa Burke, executive director of the Lincoln County Visitors Bureau. “All of these things are beneficial to our economy.”
As North Platte continues to grow and develop its facilities, more major events can be hosted in the city. The D&N expansion project will increase the size of the facility to accommodate major sporting events and more. In the end, the changes and renovations to other North Platte facilities will increase tourism dollars.
“We have a lot of great facilities and the ability to host these types of events,” Burke said. “So we’re trying to get a bigger facility so we can do more events like this to bring more dollars into our community.”
Tourist spots for crane tours are typically Grand Island and Kearney. As the cranes continued to move to North Platte, Dusty Trails began hosting crane rides. Over 1000 tours have been booked so far this year.
“I would estimate that we’ve made over $300,000 from these crane tours, and that’s a big boom for us,” Burke said.
The Lincoln County Visitors Bureau is transitioning to non-profit operations rather than operating as a government agency. This change will free up the organization to remain competitive with other offices.
Copyright 2022 KNOP. All rights reserved.
Comments are closed.