Attendance and South Dakota tax revenue

The 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held in the Black Hills last month generated hundreds of thousands of additional dollars for government coffers.

The South Dakota Department of Revenue released tax collections earlier this month from the annual motorcycle festival. So far, collections sit at $1.79 million, an increase of 34% over last year’s collections, indicating attendees spent more during this year’s rally than in recent years past.

State sales tax accounted for $1,038,561 of the total revenues, compared to $785,251 in 2020 and $733,312 in 2019.

That’s despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Officials expected attendance to skyrocket with over 700,000 attendees for the 2021 rally as a direct rebound from the pandemic’s impact on last year’s attendance, but visitors only tallied up at a little over 525,000.