Visitors to the Richmond region doled out about $1.84 billion in 2006 and spent enough time in bars, restaurants, theaters and shopping malls to support 25,990 jobs, a new study shows.

Those same travelers paid $454 million in federal, state and local taxes, saving households in the Richmond area $585 in taxes in 2006, the latest year figures are available, according to a study released this week by the Richmond Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Tourism activity in the city of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico and New Kent were included in the survey. Betting proceeds from Colonial Downs in New Kent were not.

The convention bureau commissioned the $20,000 study to determine the economic impact tourism had on the area. It also wanted to know where tourism money was being spent and what it meant for local taxes.

But Christine Chmura, president of Chmura Economics & Analytics in Richmond, said the economic impact of tourism is difficult to figure "because people often have more than one reason to visit an area, and also, there are few establishments that you can identify as tourism-only," she said.

The amount of money spent on food and beverages -- $494.6 million -- topped the survey list.

Jack Berry, the visitors bureau's president and chief executive, said the study's most surprising finding was the $429.2 million spent on entertainment, which ranked second. The category includes people attending concerts, theater, amusement parks, museums and other attractions.

He expected that category to be lower because visitation to entertainment venues had been declining in the past few years, in part as a result of renovations to the Virginia Capitol and at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. With the Capitol open, the numbers appear to be rebounding, Berry said.

Shopping came in third at $401.2 million.

Lodging, at fourth on the list, generated $294.6 million. That category always was thought to be higher on the list because it seemed to be where the most money was spent, Berry said.

At least 26 hotels are planned or are under construction in the area. Local hotels were 62.2 percent full in 2007, up from 57.6 percent in 2006, according to Smith Travel Research, a lodging-industry data provider.

The convention bureau spent $400,299 in 2007 on advertising to attract tourism and conventions, Berry said.

The state-supported Virginia Tourism Corp. cites an annual survey provided by the Travel Industry Association. For 2006, the survey estimated that $1.7 billion was spent in the Richmond area.

The differing numbers between the Richmond convention bureau's recent survey and the state figures are not surprising, Chmura said. In restaurants, for instance, it is hard to differentiate between local and visiting patrons.

Market research and consulting firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates and the forecasting firm Global Insights conducted the survey for the Richmond convention bureau. Those firms used a software developed in 2003 called City Tourism Impact.

Each month, D.K. Shifflet sends out 50,000 surveys to people asking if they traveled recently. Questions on the survey include where they went, who they traveled with, what they spent money on, and how much they spent, said Jim Caldwell, vice president of sales and marketing.

Virginia is one of the top 10 tourism destinations in the country.

Statewide, tourists from the United States spent $17.7 billion in 2006 and generated $2.4 billion in federal, state and local taxes, the Virginia Tourism Corp. said. More than 208,200 people are employed directly in the tourism industry, the agency said.

"One of the beauties of tourists is they come, they stay for several days, they spend their money and they go home," said Tamra Talmadge-Anderson, the tourism agency's public-relations director.

The brief visits mean municipalities and the state do not have to cover education or long-term health care costs, she said.

"The benefits definitely outweigh any expenditures involved," Talmadge-Anderson said.

Contact Emily C. Dooley at (804) 649-6016 or edooley@timesdispatch.com.