Ohio visitors spend more than $27.1 billion annually on travel and tourism and the industry supports nearly 700,000 travel-related positions. Visitors spend more than one billion annually in Ashtabula County alone. It is known as the Covered Bridge Capital (16) and the Wine Capital (11) of Ohio, and offers more campsites than any other county in Ohio (18).
Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati all offer major attractions of museums, restaurants, shopping, parks, and concerts. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the Great Lakes Science Center, both in Cleveland, are major attractions. The NFL Hall of Fame is located in Canton. Popular amusement parks include Cedar Point in Sandusky, King's Island in Cincinnati, and Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Aurora.
Beaches and parks in the Lake Erie region are especially popular with tourists during the summer, including the Mentor Headlands State Park. The Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area is also a popular attraction, linking the urban center of Cleveland and Akron. The Cleveland Metroparks system creates an "Emerald Necklace" around the greater Cleveland area.
Ohio state parks comprise 204,274 acres (84,000 hectares). Among the most visited state parks are Alum Creek, East Harbor and Kelleys Island (both on Lake Erie), Grand Lake, St. Mary's, Hocking Hills, Hueston Woods, Mohican, Pymatuning (on the Pennsylvania border), Rocky Fork, Salt Fork, Scioto Trail, and West Branch.
The most popular sport fish are bass, catfish, bullhead, carp, perch, and rainbow trout. The deer-shooting season is held in late November; hunters are limited to one deer per season. However, because of the growing deer population in Ohio, hunters have been able to take two deer per season recently. Also the season times vary for shotgun, primitive arms, and bows. The bow season lasts several months.
The eastern Allegheny region has several ski resorts for winter sports enthusiasts. Popular tourist attractions here include the Amish settlement around Millersburg, the National Road-Zane Grey Museum near Zanesville, and the restored Roscoe Village on the Ohio-Erie Canal. The southern region offers scenic hill country and the showboat Majestic, the last of the original floating theaters, in Cincinnati.
In the western region, tourist sites include the Wright brothers' early flying machines in Dayton's Carillon Park, the Ohio Caverns at West Liberty, and the Zane Caverns near Bellefontaine. The central region is "Johnny Appleseed" country; the folk hero (a frontiersman whose real name was John Chapman) is commemorated in Mansfield by the blockhouse to which he directed settlers in order to save them from an Indian raid. At Columbus are the reconstructed Ohio Village and the Exposition Center, site of the annual Ohio State Fair, held for 13 days in mid-August.
Other leading tourist attractions include Ohio's presidential memorials and homes: the William Henry Harrison Memorial at North Bend, Ulysses S. Grant's birthplace at Point Pleasant, the James A. Garfield home at Mentor, the Rutherford B. Hayes home at Fremont, the William McKinley Memorial at Canton, the Taft National Historic Site in Cincinnati, and the Warren G. Harding home in Marion. Also of interest are the Thomas A. Edison birthplace at Milan, and Malabar Farm, in Richland County, home of author and conservationist Louis Bromfield.