Press Releases

Visitor spending in North Carolina for 2021, with numbers broken out at the county level. All 100 counties saw increases.

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.

, N.C. - North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Anthony M. Copeland announced today that North Carolina tourism generated record visitor spending in 2016 with a total of $22.9 billion, a 4.3 percent increase from 2015. Additionally, tourism industry-supported employment topped 218,000 jobs to set another record for the state. “Nearly 50 million people from across the United States visited North Carolina destinations last year,” Secretary Copeland said. “The money they spent supported 218,340 jobs and more than 45,000 businesses.”

State spending by domestic visitors jumps to record $21.9 billion

State welcome centers now offer free wireless internet service