(The Center Square) – Tourism spending in North Carolina hit a record high of $33.3 billion in 2022, shattering the prepandemic peak by more than $4 billion.
Preliminary findings from research conducted by Tourism Economics on behalf of Visit North Carolina show the state’s tourism industry is roaring back from the pandemic, resulting in significant job gains and a rebound for tax revenues.
The spending resulted in a 7.9% increase in federal, state and local taxes from 2021, generating a total of $4.2 billion in 2022. State tax receipts were up 6.5% to nearly $1.3 billion, while local tax receipts grew 3.5% to almost $1.2 billion from the year prior.
The tourism tax revenues are now 2.2% higher than in 2019, despite a nearly 40% decline in tax revenues generated from international travelers.
“Visitors spend more than $91 million per day in North Carolina,” according to the Department of Commerce. “That spending adds $6.7 million per day to state and local tax revenues (about $3.5 million in state taxes and $3.2 million in local taxes).”
The report says spending by 43 million domestic and international visitors totaled $33.3 billion in 2022, which is up 15.2% from 2021 and 14% higher than the record $29.22 billion spent in 2019.
Domestic travelers accounted for $32.4 billion, up 13.4% from 2021, while international travelers spent $910 million, or 170% more than the year prior. The spending from domestic visitors marked a 16.1% increase from 2019, while international traveler spending remained 30.3% below the pre-pandemic high.
“The new report gives North Carolinians plenty of reasons to celebrate,” said Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. “Visitor spending sustains more than 45,000 small businesses that meet travelers’ needs for lodging and dining, transportation, retail, and recreation. Tourism means jobs in all 100 counties, and we will continue our efforts to grow our first-in-talent workforce in travel and other North Carolina industries.”
The Commerce Department says tourism saves each North Carolina household $512 on average in state and local taxes, or about $230 per capita.
Tourism jobs also increased by 9.8% to 216,900 jobs in 2022, helping to reverse a more than 26% loss in 2020. The added jobs contributed to an increase in tourism payroll by 13.5% from 2021 to $8.7 billion, according to the report.
A breakdown of tourism employment, however, shows jobs in all sectors remain below 2019 figures. Overall, total employment remains 10.6% below the 242,600 employed in the tourism industry before the pandemic.
Sectors that continue to lag the most include retail, recreation and planning, which remain 14.7%, 14.2% and 10.6% below 2019 figures, respectively.
