Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/926592
B M & T ••• November/December 2017 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 42 ONE COMMUNITY – ONE 5-YEAR RESULTS One Community One Goal is a commu- nity-wide initiative led by the Miami-Dade Beacon Council and supported by Greater Miami's entire community, including the Hospitality & Tourism Industry. It is a strate- gic plan to diversity and strengthen our local economy. Exceeding expectations in job growth, community collaboration and talent development, One Community One Goal continues to be our community's road map for economic success today, tomorrow and beyond. The 5-year job creation goal in the target industries was to generate 27,000 new jobs. The results are in and it worked! All the 5- year One Community One Goal job growth goals in every business sector, including the seven high-skill, high wage targeted industries, have been surpassed. T R AV E L DATA ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? – EVERY STATE RANKED BY ENTERTAINMENT A new study from PlayNJ finds which states offer the most when it comes to enter- taining their tourists, and finds that California tops the list overall, but is only 13th when it comes to happiness – and Texas takes second place thanks to dominating the sports options. American culture, weather, and landscape differ drastically from state to state – from busy city life in New York to the quieter climes of Utah. And everywhere has something different to do for entertainment and relaxation – but which states have the most to do? In a new piece of research from PlayNJ, you can find which states offer the highest number of theatre, theme parks, sports stadiums, and more, including tourism income and happi- ness, in order to find if your state tops the charts for top trips. L ET ME ENTERTAIN YOU While the overall winner was California thanks to its high tourism income, with Texas as a runner-up, the top winners for each met- ric were much more spread out: Happiness – Hawaii – it seems that enter- tainment options don't necessarily equal hap- piness, as Hawaii only reaches #20 on the overall rankings, but was the number one result when it came to happiness. Casinos – Nevada – it'll come as a surprise to no one that Las Vegas pushed Nevada to the top of the charts when it comes to number of casinos. What happens in Vegas… Theme Parks – New Jersey – it turns out that New Jersey is the theme park capital of America, with 30 available for residents and visitors. The next entry on the list was Tennessee, which had 29. Sports Stadiums and Zoos – Texas – the Southern state came out on top when it came to seeing both animals and sports teams. Go Cowboys! TripAdvisor's Things to Do – Florida – some states offer completely unique experi- ences that can't be assigned to any other cate- gory. According to TripAdvisor, the place with the most things to see and do is Florida. Theatres – Illinois – Illinois made it into the top 10 states overall at #9, but its stand-out success was in the number of theatres: 98, 4 more than the next most successful, Missouri, and 86 more than the worst, North Dakota. Tourism Income – California – Cali's tourism spend blew all the others out of the water, reaching $126.3 billion in 2016, over $37 billion more than the runner-up, Florida. T OP SCORE The top five states came from all across the US and were supported by different forms of entertainment. Remarkably, the highest any of them reached in terms of happiness was the position of 10th happiest state – Texas. California – California's big win was in its tourism, but it also scored highly when it came to both zoos and sports stadiums, only losing out to Texas on each. Texas – The only state to win on more than one metric, Texas is the American sports hub, and also home to the most zoos. Florida – Florida has a lot going on, according to TripAdvisor, including hundreds of miles of beaches and the Everglades. New York – New York, New York, the city so good they named it twice – and built a lot of casinos, theatres, zoos, and sports stadiums. Nevada – The glittering lights of Las Vegas have drawn tourists to Vegas for years, and there was never any chance that Nevada would be let down by its casino options, which pulled it into the top five. It also fared well on theatres and, also unsurprisingly, tourism income.