It's enough to make some choke on their cheesesteak.

Tourists spend more money in Allegheny County and the Steel City than they do in Philadelphia County and the City of Brotherly Love?

The Andy Warhol Museum, the Fort Pitt Blockhouse, and the Primanti's sandwich beats out the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and those gooey cheesesteaks?

Well, yes and no.

It is true, as VisitPittsburgh officials touted Thursday, that Allegheny County ranks first in the state in terms of tourism spending, surpassing Philadelphia County, which ranks second.

The figures showed that 12.7 percent of all dollars spent in the state were spent in Allegheny County. Philadelphia ranked second at 11.8 percent, according to VisitPittsburgh.

But the figures, based on 2005 estimates, perhaps have more to do with geography than with tourists preferring pierogies to soft pretzels with mustard.

In fact, if you look at tourism spending by region, the Pittsburgh area falls to third, behind Philadelphia and Dutch Country Roads, which includes Lancaster, Gettysburg and Hershey.

So what gives?

Elizabeth Sechoka, research director for the state tourism office, said yesterday one reason Allegheny County ranks ahead of Philadelphia County is simply that it's bigger, 730 square miles to 135.

She said that when people come to Pittsburgh, they tend to stay in Allegheny County, whether they're visiting Downtown, Mount Washington, Kennywood Park, the Carnegie museums, the Warhol, North Park, Ross Park Mall, or Monroeville.

"People who come to Allegheny County, I'm surmising a lot are coming to the city of Pittsburgh but they stay within Allegheny County. They're not going outside the county to go to dinner, the museum," she said.

But it's different in the southeastern part of the state, where a number of major attractions, such as Valley Forge and the King of Prussia mall, are outside of Philadelphia County, she said. While the tourist may think he or she is still in Philadelphia, the spending is counted toward another county.

"I think that is pretty much the key difference, just the geographic boundaries of the counties," she said.

Michael Chapaloney, state tourism office spokesman, said transportation spending also was a factor. It was higher in Allegheny County, a factor he attributed to the larger mass transportation system available to tourists in Philadelphia.

Jeff Letwin, VisitPittsburgh board chairman, said the fact that Pittsburgh ranks third in the state as a region for tourism spending doesn't detract from Allegheny County's No. 1 rating on a county by county basis.

"I think we're doing our job and that's the important thing, getting people to this area," he said. "What we're doing in Allegheny County is borne out by those numbers. We're bringing them to the county."

Nor does he think it's misleading to cite the statistic given some of the variables.

"Absolutely not. It's not misleading at all. The statistics are what they are. If Allegheny County generates those kinds of dollars, that's it. I'm not sure you have to qualify that," he said.

Mr. Letwin added he's not surprised that other regions of the state generate more spending than the Pittsburgh region. In fact, he thinks it's a good thing.

"At the end of the day we're generating more money for the state, which we all get to share in," he said.