Corvette Sinkhole Beats Kentucky Derby at Helping Tourism

By Detroit Steel - May 8, 2015

corvette sinkhole

The Kentucky Derby might be a major draw for the old Bluegrass State, but even those winning thoroughbreds took a back seat to Corvettes when it came to luring people to Kentucky in 2014.

With so many people flocking to Bowling Green to see the sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum, that region of the state posted a 6.7 percent increase over 2013 in local direct tourism expenditures in Kentucky, according to a BG Daily News report.

That was a higher jump than Kentucky’s main tourism source, the Bourbon, Horses & History region where the famed Churchill Downs racetrack is found, site of the legendary Kentucky Derby.

Overall, Kentucky’s tourism was up 4.4 percent in 2014 for a total of nearly $13.1 billion.

“We’re just thrilled,” Vicki Fitch, executive director of the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Monday about the report. “We’ve brought in bigger events, more attractions and, yes, the sinkhole collapse was a contributing factor.”

Like I’ve said before, as dreadful as it was, the appeal of that Corvette sinkhole catastrophe never ceases to amaze me.