At $2.1 billion, Dare County is 4th in state in 2023 visitor spending
Visitor spending continued to break records for North Carolina in 2023, according to data released Tuesday, Aug. 13 by the N.C. Department of Commerce. Travel spending statewide rose 6.9 percent to $35.6 billion in 2023 to set a record in visitor spending. That growth followed a record-breaking increase of 15 percent in 2022. Direct tourism employment also increased statewide by 4.8 percent to 227,000.
The preliminary findings from an annual study commissioned by VisitNC, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, reflect the economic impact of tourism on local economies across the state.
- Locally, Dare County had the fourth highest visitor spending of North Carolina’s 100 counties, at roughly $2.1 billion in 2023. It ranked 10th among counties in percentage growth in spending in 2023, at 8.8%.
- Currituck County was 14th in visitor spending in 2023, at about $573 million. It’s rate of growth in visitor spending was 4.3% in 2023.
- Hyde County was 67th in visitor spending in 2023, with about $62 million. It’s rate of growth in 2023 was 6.1%.
- Mecklenburg received $5.8 billion (up 9.6 percent) in traveler expenditures to lead all counties. Wake ranked second with $3.3 billion (up 11.4 percent), followed by Buncombe ($3.0 billion, up 3.0 percent).
- Mecklenburg had the largest number of direct tourism employees (36,310), an increase of 8.0 percent from 2022. Four other counties had more than 10,000 direct tourism employees: Wake (25,984, up 5.7 percent), Buncombe (19,862, up 2.9 percent), Dare (12,564, up 4.4 percent) and Guilford (11,580, up 5.5 percent)
Full tables can be accessed at partners.visitnc.com/economic-impact-studies.
