If the 2017 report told the story of a river corridor discovering its economic worth, the 2021 Great Miami Riverway tourism impact study told the story of that same corridor clawing its way back from the worst year tourism had seen in a generation. COVID-19 restrictions and closures hammered visitor spending across Ohio in 2020, and the Great Miami Riverway was no exception — regional visitor spending fell to $473.5 million that year, down sharply from $602.0 million in 2019.
By 2021, the picture had changed. Vaccines were widely available, travel confidence was returning, and Ohioans — along with visitors from neighboring states — were once again exploring the trails, waterways, breweries, and downtowns that line the Great Miami River from Sidney to Hamilton. The result was one of the strongest single-year growth rates the Riverway has ever recorded.
Tourism Economics, again using its IMPLAN input-output model for the state of Ohio, found that the Great Miami Riverway region generated:
| Metric | 2021 Result | Change vs. 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| Direct visitor spending | $572.3 million | +11.6% |
| Total economic impact (direct + indirect + induced) | $984.1 million | +27.3% |
| Total jobs supported | 9,924 | +9.0% |
| Total labor income | $270.3 million | +23.0% |
| Total tax revenue generated | $137.0 million | +37.6% |
Regional visitor spending jumped 20.9% year-over-year in 2021, reaching 95.1% of 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels — putting the Great Miami Riverway on a faster recovery trajectory than many comparable Midwest tourism destinations.
Every county in the five-county Riverway region saw growth in 2021, though the pace varied:
Shelby and Warren counties' outsized recovery is notable: both smaller markets rebounded past pre-pandemic spending levels before the larger Montgomery and Butler County markets did, suggesting drive-to, outdoor-recreation-driven travel (rather than business or convention travel) led the region's comeback — a pattern seen across much of the U.S. tourism industry during the pandemic recovery.
Retail trade led all industries in the Riverway's 2021 total business sales impact at $181.9 million, followed by food & beverage ($146.4 million) and finance, insurance & real estate ($141.3 million, driven largely by indirect and induced spending). Direct visitor spending was concentrated in retail ($160.6 million), food & beverage ($129.3 million), recreation and entertainment ($88.3 million), and lodging ($79.3 million) — a spending mix that tracks closely with the Riverway's identity as an outdoor recreation and small-town main street destination.
On the jobs side, food & beverage supported the most positions (3,549 total), with recreation and entertainment (1,245), other transportation (1,121), and retail trade (1,043) rounding out the top four.
The 2021 report found that Great Miami Riverway tourism generated $137.0 million in total tax revenue — $69.5 million federal, $38.6 million state, and $28.9 million local. That local and state tax contribution, generated entirely by visitors rather than residents, helps fund the same parks, roads, and public safety services that make the Riverway an attractive place to visit in the first place.
The Riverway's rebound didn't happen in isolation. Ohio as a whole saw visitor spending climb to $35.1 billion in 2021 (up 21.6% from 2020), with 218.8 million total visitors generating a statewide total economic impact of $60.5 billion and 497,000 jobs. The Riverway's growth rate roughly tracked the state's, reinforcing that the region's recovery was part of a broader — and genuinely strong — statewide tourism resurgence following the darkest days of the pandemic.
The 2021 study proved something important: the Great Miami Riverway's tourism economy wasn't a pandemic-era fluke propped up by pent-up demand for outdoor recreation — it was durable enough to nearly fully recover within a single year and outpace 2019 in several counties. That resilience set up the region for what came next: continued, sustained growth documented in the 2023 Great Miami Riverway economic impact report, which showed the region not just recovering, but setting new records.
How much did the Great Miami Riverway's tourism economy generate in 2021? The Great Miami Riverway generated $572.3 million in direct visitor spending and a total economic impact of $984.1 million in 2021, according to Tourism Economics.
Did the Great Miami Riverway fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic by 2021? Nearly. Regional visitor spending reached 95.1% of 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels by 2021, with Shelby, Miami, and Warren counties each fully recovering or exceeding their 2019 spending totals.
How many jobs did Great Miami Riverway tourism support in 2021? Tourism supported 9,924 total jobs across the five-county region in 2021, up from 9,110 jobs in the 2017 baseline study.
Which county drives the most tourism spending in the Great Miami Riverway? Montgomery County, home to Dayton, generated $389.8 million of the region's $572.3 million in direct visitor spending in 2021 — about 68% of the regional total.
Source: "Economic Impact of Tourism in the Great Miami Riverway Region of Ohio, 2021," Oxford Economics, September 2022. Prepared for the Great Miami Riverway.