Occupancy and meals tax collections in Dare County over the first three months of the year are holding at around the same levels as 2024, while retail sales to start 2025 took a double-digit decline.
And despite concerns that bookings are down heading into peak season this weekend, there are signs that visitors are waiting until the last minute to finalize their travel plans this summer.
The numbers presented to the Dare County Tourism Board at their monthly meeting last week reflect what was collected in March for nightly stays at hotel and vacation rental, sales of prepared foods and beverages that took place in February.
The figures are then 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.
Sales tax generated by businesses in January is submitted to the N.C. Department of Revenue in February, and then a portion is distributed back to the county.
While January and February saw the first significant snowfalls since 2020, the Outer Banks avoided any other serious weather impacts from nor’easters this past winter that have hampered visitor-related businesses.
And the uncertainty of a new administration in Washington, the future of the economy, and the continued increases in prices for goods and services also played a role in the numbers reported.
Total occupancy tax collections in March were down 2.26% from a year ago at $23,315,703, while ranking as the third-highest amount collected ever in March behind only 2021 and 2024.
For the year, collections of the 6% tax on nightly stays in hotels and vacation rentals are 0.78% ahead of last year through March at $55,126,745 to rank fourth-best in history.
Motel/hotels were down 5.66% for the month and 10.99% for the year, property management agencies had a 1.48% decline in March but were ahead 3.28% year-date.
Campgrounds were up for the month 23.35% and 19.06% year-to-date. Cottages were down 19.32% for the month and off by 28.64% for the year.
Bed and breakfasts had the biggest increase of any sector for the month, 59.52%, but was down for the year by 51.24%.
Timeshares were down 39.65% month-to-month and declined 15.59% year-to-date.
Hatteras Island saw a 3.31% decline for March, and up 5.26% for the year, the northern beaches were down 2.62% for the month and ahead by 0.24% year-to-year, and Roanoke Island and the mainland were up 7.48% for the month and 2.64% year-to-date.
A new March record for gross meals collections was set in 2025 of $19,564,191, 0.73% ahead of last year.
Year-to-date totals in the monthly reports to the tourism board are skewed because they include $4.3 million that was taken in between 2021-24 was submitted to the tax office in February.
Taking out those figures, $43,174,368 has been collected by establishment so far this year, just 0.82% behind the first three months of 2024, and the third-highest all-time.
Hatteras Island was down 6.05% for the month, and 1.19% year-to-date, the northern beaches ticked upward 0.27% for March while declining 1.4.1% for the year, and Roanoke Island and the mainland was up 13.13% for the month and 4.1% from 2024.
Gross collections on retail sales reported in February for transactions that took place in January 2025 were $4,761,493, a decline of 13.74% from the year before, and the lowest total for the month since 2022.
Retail sales through February totaled $10,560,836, down 3.05% from 2024, third highest all time to extend a streak to four of the year-to-date in the first two months of the year topping $10 million.
Lee Nettles, Executive Director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, said in a video summary of the Tourism Board’s meeting that they are hearing from accomodations providers that future bookings are starting to fill in a bit.
“The booking windows are shorter than usual, people waiting a little closer to the actual travel date to pull the trigger, but those bookings are moving in a positive direction,” Nettles said.
Nettles said the board decided to not move forward with adding a vacation rental booking engine on the official visitors bureau website, outerbanks.org.
The board reaffirmed their opposition to adding and raising ferry tolls, which are included in the state Senate’s budget proposal, and sent a revised resolution to the General Assembly.
“The Tourism Board was recently made aware that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has restarted its national outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing program, which will replace the 2014-2019 plan,” Nettles said.
“The tourism board, in light of this information, revisited a couple of its resolutions that had passed unanimously in the past opposing seismic testing and offshore drilling,” Nettles said. “The board once again voted unanimously to update those resolutions in opposition to seismic testing and offshore drilling.”
