Knoxville dropped one spot in a popular Tennessee tourism poll, according to the TN Department of Tourism.
Knox County lost its fourth place spot in tourism revenue. Hamilton county now claims that space.
Here are the new rankings based on visitor spending in the 2011 fiscal year.
1.) Davidson County
2.) Shelby County
3.) Sevier County
4.) Hamilton County
5.) Knox County
On a positive note, Knox County tourism officials did notice an 8% increase in domestic travel.
The Visit Knoxville organization said their recent reorganization created new initiatives and extra momentum that should help increase visitor spending.
Many factors play a role in Knoxville tourism; including the number of hotel rooms sold.
Wednesday, 10News showed you Sevier County's 10% increase in hotel occupancy so far in 2012.
Thursday, 10News showed viewers how Knoxville has not been as lucky. Knoxville's hotel occupancy growth is basically flat from January to July of 2012.
Visit Knoxville is watching the hotel numbers closely. They believe the lodging decrease was caused by gas prices and a large bike convention which temporarily relocated to another city in 2012. 20,000 motorcycle enthusiast attended the event in 2011.
"You can come up with short initiatives, especially as it relates to group business. Throw that out there and see if you can book some last minute bookings for hotels. That sometimes helps," said Kim Bumpas, President of Visit Knoxville.
Dr. Steve Morse teaches tourism management at the University of Tennessee. Morse compiled his information with statistics from Smith Travel Research to come up with both Sevier County and Knoxville hotel numbers.
Dr. Morse said the number of hotel rooms sold lin Knoxville looked well in January and drastically dropped in May through July.
"In Knoxville, for January 2012, there was an 11.1% increase in the number of hotel rooms sold over January 2011. Also for example, in June 2012, there was a 7.4% decrease in the number of rooms sold over June 2011," the professor said.