BOISE — Every year Boise tops list after list of the best places to live. The Idaho Department of Commerce says total direct travel spending in Idaho was 3.7 billion in 2017. They just expect tourism to keep growing here in the gem state.
"I really love it because it's a big city and it's just like really nice and it's actually a lot fun," said Reagan Blair.
"Your weather is a lot more calm down here than it is in certain areas being from the northwest, but I think it's a really nice area to visit," said Ginger Johnson, Boise resident.
The Idaho Department of Commerce says it's more than people from other states.
"European travelers, Asian travelers, South American travelers," said Matt Borud, Idaho Department of Commerce.
Recently an event called, "Go west," brought more than five-hundred people from all over the world to the City of Trees.
"Between go West and then big sky hoops and then Treefort, it's been a really crazy busy run," said Borud.
In 2017 Long Woods International conducted a study with visitors to Idaho and of the participants, 80 percent say they were extremely satisfied with their overnight stay in Idaho.
"What we get really excited about is when people talk about shooting up to Bogus for a day trip or maybe you popped over to see Shoshone Falls or it's somebody's first experience in Idaho and they love it and then they want to come back to McCall or they want to go to Sun Valley," said Borud.
Recently, the Idaho Department of Commerce launched a media campaign for visiting the Gem State.
"The concept is you have 18 summers with your kids before their out of the house so make the most out of every summer. We want to convey to folks to take your vacation time. Americans are pretty bad at this and so we want to make sure that people are taking their vacation time in Idaho with their families."
Long Woods International also shared that 75 percent of travelers said they were very satisfied with the safety and security of their trip to Idaho.
