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Abstract

Tourism has become an important component of local economies in towns and cities throughout the Desert Southwest. The annual trek southward of winter snowbirds has become the economic lifeblood of many communities. Assessing the costs and benefits of tourism is too complicated and expensive for most places, especially small towns. This exploratory study examines one type of benefit (sales tax revenue) and one type of cost (city employment) for the resort town of Scottsdale, Arizona. Benefits are found to outweigh costs in Scottsdale by a ratio of 2.2 : 1. Implications and research questions are reviewed.

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