Visitor study: 22% of people in LaSalle are visitors; LBA invites public meeting on tree-inventory grant

A consultant presented a yearlong visitor profile for LaSalle, reporting that roughly 22% of people present in the city met the meeting’s definition of "visitor" and that visitors contributed about 31% of overall visitor-area spending.

"We define a visitor as anyone who comes from 50 miles or greater," said Kate Gilman, presenting on behalf of Bob Navarro. Gilman said the analysis (based on Zardico cell-phone and credit-card data for Jan. 1–Dec. 31, 2025) showed a 7% decrease in the share of visitors from 2024 and that 54% of visitors came from out of state.

Gilman gave spending figures from the report: an average daily spend of $49 per visitor overall; $45 per visitor at restaurants; $83 average spend when visitors shopped retail; and $50 average spend on arts and entertainment per visitor. She noted limitations in the dataset: visitors are defined by distance thresholds (50 miles for presence, 60 miles for spending) and purchases made prior to arrival may not be captured in on-site spending totals.

During Q&A, council members asked about sample-size thresholds and the data sources; Gilman said the provider combines cell-phone location and credit-card ZIP-code data and that a minimum number of devices/transactions is required to pull some market-level estimates.

Separately, Chris Duncan of the LaSalle Business Association invited residents to a public discussion about an Illinois community canopy tree-inventory and management-plan grant. "The discussion will be held at the LaSalle Public Library from 7 to 8 PM, Tuesday, July 28," Duncan said, noting the grant award was for $37,310 and is grant-funded planning rather than funding for planting.

The council thanked the presenters and had no further action on the visitor report; staff said they will continue to seek more granular spending data where possible.