Eight and a half million dollars.

That is how much last year’s Autumn Leaves Festival pumped into the area economy. It’s even more startling when one recalls that festival organizers and participants remarked that the 2008 festival was a little off, in terms of crowds, when compared with recent years.

First, kudos to the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce for having the foresight to take part in the economic impact study to determine just what effect the festival has.

Second, wow. As we’ve mentioned here before, that money spreads out in the community. Visitors spend their dollars at area restaurants, shops, and hotels, and the folks there don’t take the money home and stuff it in a mattress. Instead, they turn around and use the money to buy things at stores and restaurants, they make car and mortgage payments, and maybe — hopefully — they put a little aside in savings.

While the Autumn Leaves Festival might be the single largest event in Mount Airy and Surry County each year, it is hardly the only such activity. The famous Mayberry Days, the Tommy Jarrell Festival, the annual Blue Grass Festival, not to mention efforts toward bringing groups here for their meetings such as the North Carolina HOG Rally set for August of this year, all keep this tourism money flowing into the local economy.

On top of that, there is an almost constant trickle — some days more of a roaring flood — of visitors throughout the year stopping in Mount Airy or visiting the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains, or taking in some of the growing list of activities at local wineries.

Hopefully, this study will now do two things. First, it will put to rest any of this lingering condemnation of local efforts toward improving the tourism industry here. It is clearly worth the effort and expense.

Second, we hope this study — which gives festival organizers significant information on the home location of these visitors — will serve as a tool to more effectively market the festival and all the other events the region has to offer.

For now, though, the study serves as confirmation that the people putting on these activities are, in fact, making a significant contribution to the local economy.