The start of 2025 was relatively even with the previous year for Dare County hotels, vacation rentals and restaurants, while there was a big increase in retail sales figures.
That’s despite a snowstorm that covered the Outer Banks with as much as 9 inches of snow in late January, while retailers likely passed along increased costs for items to Christmas shoppers.
And while projections across the country for the upcoming summer travel season are coming in lower than previous years, local tourism leaders are confident the Outer Banks will not see severe declines.
Date in the report presented at last week’s Dare County Tourism Board meeting shows gross occupancy collections in February totaled $15,106,523, just 0.98% behind the same month in 2024.
It is the second lowest February collection this decade, but the fifth straight year the total for the month has topped $15 million.
Through the first two months of 2025, occupancy collections totaled $31,811,042, up 3.13% compared to the same time last year.
The year-to-date total is also the second lowest in the 2020s, while remaining over the $30 million for a fifth straight year.
Property Management Agencies was the only sector to see an increase in February, growing by 3.79% for the month and 6.79% for the year
Motel/Hotel dropped 19.04% for the month, and was down 16.25% for the year; Timeshares -15.22% month, +19.89% year-to-date; Campgrounds -18.28% month, -3.53% year; Cottage -45,58% month, -41.90% year; Bed & Breakfast -87.73% month, -81.59% year.
Hatteras Island accommodations were up 1.69% from February 2024, and grew by 12.93% year-to-date; Northern Beaches -0.16 month, +2.41% year; and Roanoke Island/Mainland -6.13% month, -0.49% year.
According to a note in the data from the Dare County Tourism Board agenda, prepared meals and drinks sales collections that were reported for February included approximately $4.3 million from establishments located in Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and Duck that was actually came from sales made from 2021-24.
Deducting those figures, actual February gross meals collections submitted for the previous month’s sales by the 15th of the following month were $12,006,677, down 0.07% from a year ago.
The adjusted total for February extends the streak of topping $12 million to a fourth straight year, and is the fourth highest all-time.
Again taking into account the revenue from previous years that was reported this year, $23,610,177 has been collected in the first two months of 2025, a decline of 0.02% from 2024.
While second lowest this decade, year-to-date meals have not been below $20 million since 2020.
Meals collections on Hatteras Island grew by 11.07% for the month and 5.36% for the year, in the northern beach towns it was -0.11% for the month and -0.03% for the year, and Roanoke Island/mainland establishment were 0.47% for the month and -1.13% for the year.
Retail sales reported in January 2025 set a new record of $5,799,343, a 7.93% increase from 2024, and have grown every January this decade.
That comes off 2024 when retail sales totals were down 2.24%.
The data reflects collections that are due to the Dare County Tax Office and the N.C. Department of Revenue on the 15th of the month following the month the actual stays and sales took place.
The figures presented in the report are used to calculate revenues the county generates from the 6% occupancy tax and 1% prepared food and beverage tax, which then funds promotion of the Outer Banks, along with grants for events and tourism-related impacts.
Beach nourishment projects are also funded in part using 2% of the hotel room/vacation rental tax.
With regards to what the season holds ahead, there are concerns a sharper drop in visitors could be in the works due to both economic and federal government turmoil.
“We’ve been paying close attention, as I’m sure all of you have, to national economic projections,” said Outer Banks Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lee Nettles in a video posted this week recapping the tourism board meeting.
“There’s obviously a lot of volatility, a lot of uncertainty. National economist projections for the travel and tourism industry that we saw recently (are) projecting a soft year, off 5 to 10%,” Nettles said.
“I think that we’ll do a little bit better than that locally, but we certainly have challenges ahead of us,” Nettles said.
He added that being easily driveable from so many major markets will again be appealing to travelers that are rethinking their future plans.
“They’ll be potentially trading down from those Europe trips or cruises, and remembering that the Outer Banks offers tremendous value in a lot of different ways,” Nettles said. “So we’re going to be working hard to get those messages out.”
Comparing year to year is great but are we looking at raw numbers or using a tool like the Consumer Price Index to gauge inflation?