Outside an event held on Monday by Texas Congressman Ron Paul at a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa, the U.S., Tom Bragg, a vendor who's selling Ron Paul memorabilia is smiling.

"I'm doing O.K." said Bragg, who's also from Texas, as he hands pins of Ron Paul, who's running for Republican nomination, to buyers at a price of ten dollars for three. In ten minutes, he sold over fifty dollar worth of goods.

Bragg is not the only business-minded person who is smiling these days on the sidelines of a heated campaign to gain Republican presidential nomination in the 2012 election cycle. As GOP candidates make the final push towards Tuesday's first in nation caucuses in Iowa, local business are laughing with the windfall it brings with all the media personnel, visitors and campaign staff and volunteers in town.

Gregg Edwards, CEO of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, told Xinhua that in the 2008 election cycle, the caucuses brought about 25-million-dollar economic impact to the Des Moines area, and 100 million to the state of Iowa.

"You are talking about hotels, restaurants, shopping, rental cars, transportation, and even some entertainment. Lots of places benefit from this."

Edwards said that this time around, they expect the economic impact would be lower, as there's really only one party active in the state. The Democrats are rallying behind President Barack Obama, and the party sets up a "war room" in downtown Des Moines to centralize messaging, but didn't do much besides that.

But there's still big money to be made from the caucuses. The GOP candidates and the super PACs supporting them are pouring millions of dollars into TV advertising, mailers, phone calls, yard signs and bumper stickers. Their armies of staff and volunteers take up hotel rooms and order pizzas.

Droves of out-of-towners are also in Des Moines and beyond. Kiel Moreal, a 22-year-old Canadian student, drove 15 hours from Toronto to Des Moines and arrived on Monday to see Ron Paul. They are hopping around the state to participate in events held by the libertarian-leaning Congressman.

Moreal is not alone. Loads of people are coming from other states and countries to Iowa for the caucuses. They can't cast their vote, but they say it's sure fun to watch, especially for those who never saw presidential candidates up close. Locals are actually beginning to call this caucus tourism, with specially tailored programs to cater to this need. Newspapers and websites also offer things to do information for visitors of the caucuses.

Patty Judge, a former lieutenant governor of Iowa, told Xinhua that without the caucuses, Iowa would be mostly a "fly-over country" for Americans elsewhere.

"In the middle of the winter in Iowa, there's not a lot of other reasons to fill the hotels," said Judge in an interview. Edwards said that typically, this time of the year would be fairly slow for local businesses, with harsh winter winds and bitter coldness making outside events impractical if not impossible.

The economic impact, prestige and face time with presidential candidates brought by the first in the nation caucuses have made other states jealous enough to flaunt party rules and push their own primaries or caucuses early. But Iowa has stood firm and pushed its own caucuses ahead to just after the New Year's holidays.

Edwards said that Iowans'preference to keep its first in the nation status is not purely out of economic considerations. "It's one of the reasons. Another main reason is that Iowans are very well-tuned to politics, probably because we are the first in the nation. But Iowans for the most part are fairly well-educated people. They keep tabs on what's going on in the world of politics. Besides the economic generator, I think it's also a pride thing as well."

Judge has another take. She said that Iowa is in the middle of the country, and is a middle sized state.

"Demographically and geographically, we are very typical of this country. Our racial mix is very typical, and we are small enough that candidates can get around this state, and they can do the retail politics."