Kent County has seen a surge in tourism this week, thanks to the NASCAR race weekend in Dover and Delaware State Fair in Harrington.<\/p>\n
It’s the first time in decades the two have taken place in the same same weekend.<\/p>\n
Michael Lewis, with Dover Motor Speedway, says they haven\u2019t hosted a NASCAR event in July in decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re embracing the summertime this year here at Dover Motor Speedway. This is the first time we’ve had a July race weekend since 1969.”<\/p>\n
Whether drawn by carnival rides, fair food, or the excitement of high-speed racing, thousands have flocked to Kent County.<\/p>\n
Lewis says most visitors this weekend aren\u2019t just locals\u2014they\u2019re coming from all around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people may not realize that 88% of our customers here at Dover Motor Speedway come from out of state.”<\/p>\n
That influx has packed hotels across Kent County.<\/p>\n
Jamar Cain, front desk assistant general manager at Comfort Inn & Suites, located right next to Dover Motor Speedway, says he\u2019s seeing bigger crowds than before, with his hotel booked months ahead of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we were booked up earlier than expected. We had a lot of people call the year before for this year.”<\/p>\n
With so many visitors in town, public safety crews are also stepping up.<\/p>\n
Justin Conrad, with Kent County Public Safety, says his team has all hands on deck to keep both NASCAR fans and fairgoers safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve got extra hands on deck so we can make sure that we’re keeping everybody safe here while they’re experiencing the NASCAR event as well as the fair.”<\/p>\n
Local officials say hosting both events simultaneously provides more than increased tourism\u2014it plays a key role in sustaining the community\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Catherine Jenkins, with Kent County Tourism, says this unique timing significantly benefits the local economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving tourists and visitors here, it’s really good for our local economy. It’s how we’re able to keep taxes low. It’s how we’re able to live affordably.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASCAR weekend at Dover Motor Speedway runs through July 20. The Delaware State Fair continues through July 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kent County has seen a surge in tourism this week, thanks to the NASCAR race weekend in Dover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[14754,5552,2831,10846,18803,21136,14753,10097,14750,425,1703,14748,14751,14749,14747,21135,14752,99,14755,14746],"class_list":["post-23603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-auto-races","tag-auto-racing","tag-delaware","tag-dover","tag-dover-motor-speedway","tag-kent-county","tag-motor-racing-competitions","tag-motorsport","tag-motorsport-competitions","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-nascar-cup-series-seasons","tag-nascar-races","tag-nascar-seasons","tag-nascar-series","tag-oval-track-racing","tag-seasons-in-stock-car-racing","tag-sports","tag-stock-car-races","tag-stock-car-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}