When people ask me how Austin became the live music capital of the world, I tell them the story of a true-blue Austinite, the blues singer Lillian Stanfield, who was struck with a bright idea while driving home from a gig in Houston. Upon seeing the Austin city limits sign, it occurred to her that her hometown deserved to be known for its abundance of opportunities to perform and enjoy music. Shared with a friend, that simple bit of brilliance captured the heartbeat of our city and gave the world yet another reason to visit. As the U.S. Travel Association's National Travel and Tourism Week wraps up across the country, it's fitting to consider the positive impact tourism has had on our beloved city.

While Lillian passed away in 2003, she was a fixture in Austin back in its sleepy days as a college town with a music habit. Even a creative mind like hers would be hard pressed to recognize this once-humble town thanks to a growing variety of attractions and accommodations that enable us to compete with the top tourist destinations in the country. With gleaming new hotels like the J.W. Marriott and the Fairmont welcoming guests, and new lodgings like the Hotel ZaZa and The Proper Austin Hotel coming online later this year, the skyline has changed for the better. By the end of this year, Austin will have added 2,600 new hotel rooms since the beginning of FY 2017.

Visitors patronizing that growing array of lodging options have an ever-increasing number of world-class venues to visit, whether that's the world-renowned Moody Theater with its Austin City Limits-related cool factor or our Circuit of the Americas track with its diverse offerings of every wheeled race imaginable. Augment Texas Longhorn athletics with nationally-known events like the Dell Match Play golf tournament and equally important contests like the USA Taekwondo National Championship and it's clear our town has a vitality that's hard to match.

As a performer who understood the economic impact of attracting people to a show, even Lillian would marvel at the flood of people, 25.6 million of them, who visited the Austin area in 2016. Those visitors combined to have a local economic impact of roughly $7.4 billion, supporting nearly 122,000 jobs (making tourism our town's third-ranked employer behind professional services and government). Some economists estimate that residents of greater Travis County would have had to fork over an additional $1,080 per household to maintain the current level of tax-funded services we all enjoy.

While the story of her Austin-bound inspiration took place in her car, modern day visitors in the millions take advantage of our expanding airport. In FY 2017, more than 13 million passengers passed through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, a 9% increase in the number of people able to enjoy local treats like Salt Lick Barbecue, Hills Cafe and Austin Java all under one roof on their way to or from our town. That includes a whole new segment of visitors coming from new points of origin, thanks to new non-stop service being added to cities like London and Frankfurt.

This kind of popularity is still fueled in large part by the strength of our local creative culture.

Some 27 years after the City Council made Lillian's idea official by adopting the Live Music Capitol of the Word designation, our fair city is still a proving ground for bands. While SXSW and ACL Fest grab the lion's share of the attention, our town is loaded with musical talent. In fact, our organization alone hired or help book gigs for local musicians that paid out more than $344,000 in FY 2016/17. In that same timeframe, film and TV productions spent about $123 million in this area, further affirming our town's relevance to the global cultural scene.

If nothing else, our town's visitor-driven success is a sign that we're remaining true to our creative heritage and reveling in the charm of a town that has always attracted dreamers, artists and folks looking for a fresh perspective. Employers from around the world are drawn to our city for its vitality, progressive mindset and emphasis on innovation. U.S. News and World Report might call us the Number 1 Place in America to Live, but that's yesterday's news to people who already live here.

So, as we reflect on the enduring power of Lillian's inspiration and her desire to celebrate what's great about our community, it's essential that we keep working to honor our city's past as we dream of its future. I can only hope we continue to enjoy the support of our citizens and city council along the way so we can sustain our momentum into a new era of prosperity, diversity and enjoyment for all. I suspect that would definitely put a smile on Lillian's face and amplify that song that was always in her heart.