North Carolina ranks as the fifth most visited state in 2024
Last week, a recent report from the State of North Carolina showed the impact of the tourism industry in North Carolina for the year 2024.
Key Metrics from the report:
Visitors to North Carolina spent a record $36.7 billion, compared to $35.6 billion spent in 2023.
The tourism workforce increased by 1.4% to 230,338 jobs in 2024, with payroll increasing to $9.5 billion, and local and state tax revenue increased to $2.7 billion.
North Carolina welcomed nearly 40 million visitors in 2024, ranking fifth behind California, Florida, Texas, and New York for domestic visitation.
Additionally, North Carolina welcomed more than 900,000 international visitors, whose spending increased by 16.5% to $1.2 billion.
Visitors to North Carolina spend over $100 million per day, contributing $7.3 million a day in state and local tax revenue.
What They Are Saying:
“Today’s news underscores what we all know: North Carolina is a fantastic place to visit,” said Governor Josh Stein. “As our mountain economies worked to recover from Helene, our Piedmont and coastal destinations remained popular and contributed to the growth of North Carolina’s tourism economy. We must continue to support tourism and small businesses in western North Carolina to help them come back stronger.”
“We are very pleased with this news, especially in a year in which Helene brought so much devastation to western North Carolina,” said North Carolina Travel Industry Association Executive Director Vince Chelena. “This report shows that tourism as a whole is strong, but we still have work to do to get our destinations devastated by the storm back online.”
“North Carolinians in all 100 counties benefit from the money that visitors spend,” said Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley. “From our smallest towns to our largest cities, tourism means jobs for more than 50,000 small businesses and our first-in-talent workforce. These workers address travelers’ needs for transportation as well as lodging, dining, shopping, and recreation.”
