Photo courtesy of Tamarisk Restaurant in Green River.
Emery County, in conjunction with the state of Utah, recently approved entering into an agreement to track Visa card purchases within the county to further its economic development and tourism efforts. The service will be provided by VisaVue Travel Reporting.
The goal of the service is to track where spending within the county is occurring. The program also allows for the opportunity to track where the people spending money are from, including differentiation between local, national and international spenders.
During the Emery County Commission meeting last week, it was explained that this tracking will provide the county with helpful insight to make its efforts for growth more targeted and effective. On an economic development front, the reports will show where money is being spent and what might need more or less attention going forward.
For tourism, the insights will help guide marketing efforts. The goal is that the county will be better informed of where travelers are coming from and where marketing funds would be well spent.
According to the agreement, the reports will not include identifying information. Instead, they will just show an overview of where purchasers originate from and what they are spending their dollars on.
In partnership with the state of Utah, Emery County committed $6,810 to the service. The state has pledged the same amount in order to launch the service and begin tracking.
The agreement will be in place until March 31, 2021.