LJWorld.com

Visitor spending is on the way up in Lawrence - and that's scoring with numbers posted even before Kansas University won an Orange Bowl and a national basketball championship.

Visitors dropped $49.1 million in Lawrence last year, according to a study compiled by the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau. The total represents direct visitor spending on hotels, food and beverages, retail purchases and other miscellaneous items and services.

The total was up $3 million, or 6.5 percent, from $46.1 million in 2006, thanks in large part to a few more visitor-attracting events and an increasing number of organizations putting together their own programs, said Judy Billings, director of the convention and visitors bureau.

And sports played a big role in helping keep Lawrence ahead in an increasingly competitive tourism market, she said. Among last year's events fielded in Lawrence: the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships; a national girls softball tournament; and the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships, at Rim Rock Farm just north of town.

Then there was a bit of success on the football field, as the Jayhawks put together an undefeated home schedule that drew larger crowds to Memorial Stadium - even while the team's "home" game against University of Missouri on Thanksgiving weekend was shifted to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

"The fact that the Jayhawks are winning, that's really important," said Billings said.

After Jan. 1, KU won the Orange Bowl and then, on Monday night, the basketball Jayhawks capped a record-breaking season with a win over Memphis in the championship game of the NCAA Tournament.

That meant packed restaurants and bars, and continues to spur just-out-of-the-box sales of T-shirts and other memorabilia for a title run that won't be soon forgotten.

The sight of 40,000 people jammed into downtown Lawrence on Monday night, another 25,000 at Memorial Stadium for a rally Tuesday and who knows how many for a parade this coming Sunday afternoon has some businesses ringing up sales faster than a Sherron Collins fast break.

Many of the biggest spenders are visitors, such as the folks who filled hotel rooms overnight Monday and continue to flow into town to share in a celebration that hadn't come to Lawrence since the last hoops title in 1988.

"A Monday night in early April is not a night you'd typically be having people spending the night," she said. "Those things all add up, over time."