Here's an interesting fact from an editorial [1] in today's Maryville Daily Times: "On an average day, tourists spend $628,849 in Blount County."

I'm sure that pales in comparison to Sevier Co. but it was a surprising number, to me anyway. The editorial also says that tourism accounted for 4,132 jobs in 2006, or 11.7% of the jobs in Blount Co.

It goes on to explain why Blount Co. is the 7th most popular tourist destination in the state ("social/family events, rural sightseeing, historical places/museums and national and state parks" among others), and concludes:

We need to be what we are and not what some promoter [thinks] we should be in order to appeal more to tourists. We can spoil our most attractive asset.

Read the whole thing [2], it's pretty interesting.