300K visitors have $22 million impact during ‘Experience a Columbia Christmas’

COLUMBIA, Miss. (WDAM) - The folks associated with the annual “Experience a Columbia Christmas” say it was a big boost to the Marion County-area economy.

The Marion County Development Partnership says nearly 300,000 people visited Columbia during the series of holiday events, which ran from Nov. 19-Dec. 31.

“The economic impact surveys indicate that there was potentially $14 million of a direct impact and another $8million of indirect impact, which is a total regional impact of about $22 million across the Pine Belt,” said Lori Watts, president of the Marion County Development Partnership.

Meanwhile, organizers said the event’s ice rinks are being dismantled and Second Street, which has been closed for many weeks, should be open by the end of January.

Lights and decorations should be taken down by the end of February.

“It takes a lot of time to put this up it takes a lot of time to getting everything organized so that we can put it back up next year, so our team is working really hard to have that done by the end of February,” said Laura Hobgood, chief of operations for Experience Columbia.

The first “Experience a Columbia Christmas” was held in 2018.

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