Topics Related to Tourism

North Carolina set a record for visitor spending in 2022, according to county-level data released today by the North Carolina Department of Commerce. North Carolina’s urban counties registered the largest gains in 2022 visitor spending, following a few years of rural counties leading visitor spending post-pandemic.

The preliminary findings from an annual study commissioned by Visit North Carolina, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, reflect the economic impact of tourism on local economies across the state.

Governor Roy Cooper announced today that the North Carolina tourism economy reached its highest level ever with travelers spending more than $33.3 billion on trips to and within the state. The previous record of $29.22 billion was set in pre-pandemic 2019.

“Tourism is a vital economic force in our state supporting thousands of small businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs,” Governor Cooper said. “We can take pride that visitors see North Carolina as a diverse, inclusive and welcoming place and we all need to work to keep it that way.”

The North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Rural Economic Development Division has selected 34 local governments from across the state to participate in the Creating Outdoor Recreation Economies (CORE) program.

Governor Roy Cooper announced today that the North Carolina tourism industry saw a major recovery in 2021 with $28.9 billion in visitor spending. With domestic travel reaching new heights as international visitation lagged, the total falls just 1 percent below the record set in 2019 and represents a 45 percent increase from pandemic-stricken 2020.

North Carolina was awarded $6.4 million to establish a new tourism-focused economic recovery initiative. The new program, Supporting and Strengthening Resiliency in North Carolina’s Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Sectors Initiative, will help develop and implement economic-building strategies for the recovery of North Carolina’s travel and tourism industries that suffered economic losses due to the pandemic.

New data from a research study conducted by the U.S. Travel Association provides visitor spending totals in all 100 North Carolina counties for 2020.  Information from the study, first released in May of this year, previously showed statewide visitor spending dropped 32 percent last year, due primarily to the public health emergency created by the COVID-19 coronavirus.  The new data shows revenue losses were felt most keenly in urban areas, with some smaller destinations seeing gains.

Visitor spending in North Carolina dropped 32 percent in 2020, according to new research conducted by the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics, a global travel research company.  The spending report was commissioned by Visit North Carolina, the state’s tourism promotion unit, and is published on an annual basis.

Record visitor spending in 2018 was reflected with visitor spending increases in all 100 counties, Governor Roy Cooper announced today. The data comes from an annual study commissioned by Visit North Carolina, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.

North Carolina tourism generated record visitor spending in 2018 with a total of $25.3 billion, Governor Roy Cooper announced today. The 5.6 percent increase from 2017 was North Carolina’s largest percentage growth in travel and tourism spending since 2011. Additionally, tourism industry-supported employment topped 230,000 jobs to set another record for the state.