NACTA competition tourism boosts local economy

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) -Last week, North Platte welcomed hundreds of students from agricultural colleges across the nation for the North American Colleges and Teachers in Agricultural Judging Competition. For four days, students, faculty and other personnel spent money at local restaurants, hotels and other leisure activities. Now, those dollars are boosting the North Platte economy.

“My estimation is the NACTA tournament brought in like $200K from renting facilities, eating and filling up their tanks,” said Lisa Burke, Executive Director of the Lincoln County Visitors’ Bureau. “All of those things are beneficial for our economy.”

As North Platte continues to grow and evolve its facilities, more large events can be hosted in town. The D&N Expansion Project will increase the facility size to be able to host large sporting events and more. In the end, the modifications and renovations to other North Platte facilities will increase the tourism dollars.

“We have a lot of great facilities, and the ability to be able to hosts these type of events,” said Burke. “This is why we are trying to get a bigger facility, so we can have more events like this to bring in more dollars to bring into our community.”

Typically, tourist locations for crane tours are Grand Island and Kearney. As cranes continued to migrate to North Platte, Dusty Trails began hosted crane tours. So far this year, over 1000 tours have been booked.

“I would estimate that we have brought in over $300K from those crane tours, and that is a big boom for us,” said Burke.

The Lincoln County Visitors’ Bureau is transitioning to non-profit operations, instead of operating as government entity. This change will free up the organization to stay competitive with other bureaus.

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