RALEIGH – North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced yesterday that the state’s tourism industry brought in $28.9 billion in visitor spending during 2021. That’s a 45% increase from 2020’s visitor spending level.
The nearly $29 billion is only about 1% off of the state’s record high in visitor spending, too, which came in 2019. According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, nearly 45 million people visited the state in 2021.
“After being hit hard in 2020, tourism has bounced back as people around the world are again getting to see and experience the greatest state in the country,” said Gov. Cooper in a statement. Governor Cooper added that visitor spending on tourism helps fuel the state’s economy, supports local businesses, supports jobs, and brings in tax revenue to the state.
“We’ve been working to encourage tourism,” said Governor Cooper. According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, North Carolina ranks fifth in domestic visitation.
North Carolina’s tourism industry took a big hit in 2020 – but not everywhere
Tourism jobs up 10.5%
According to a statement from the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the state’s tourism-supported workforce increased to 197,500 jobs in 2021. That’s up 10.5% from the prior year, which the department noted in a statement “reverses the more than 26 percent loss in employment suffered in 2020.”
But the workforce total remains 18 percent below 2019 levels, when there were a record 242,600 jobs supported by tourism, according to the commerce department.
Tourism in North Carolina critical part of post-COVID recovery, finds report
Domestic spending returned, international spending lagging
The research, which was conducted by Tourism Economics on behalf of Visit North Carolina, a part of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, shows that domestic visitor spending has fully recovered in North Carolina while international spending still lags.
According to a statement, domestic visitors spent $28.6 billion in 2021, a figure that tops the 2019 record by 2.4 percent. Meanwhile, even though spending from international visitors rose nearly 26% in 2021, it was still down more than 74% from 2019 levels, the research showed.
“We’re encouraged by the report on the recovery of our tourism industry, which is essential to the state’s economic well-being,” said North Carolina Department of Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders in a statement. “More than 45,000 small businesses across North Carolina rely on what visitors spend – on everything from lodging and dining to transportation, recreation and retail.”
