The AP reports:
Nearly 50 million people who visited North Carolina spent a record amount of money in the state last year.
A statement released Wednesday by Gov. Pat McCrory says tourists spent $21.3 billion in 2014. That is a 5.4 percent increase over 2013.
McCrory says tourists helped support more than 204,000 jobs and 40,000 businesses. He says the 3.3 percent growth in tourism jobs is the largest increase in 14 years.
State tax receipts as a result of visitor spending grew 3.9 percent to more than $1 billion.
According to McCrory, North Carolina is the sixth most visited state in the nation.
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Commentary
So the scam continues. Has anyone other than us and Warren Smith ever wondered how in the worst recession in our lifetimes people are taking more vacations and spending more and more every year, even when the sales tax and gasoline tax collections are down?
North Carolina contracts with a private “data firm” from out of state to compile “tourism” numbers. The numbers get larger every year, no matter what happens. If you believe that is true we have a bridge in Brooklyn you’ll just love.
Can we prove the numbers are bogus. No. We can’t, simply because the state will not disclose the raw data or the metrics the contractor used to compute the numbers. But neither can they prove they are correct. In the academic world any research that cannot be independently replicated by a third party is deemed to be bogus until and unless proven otherwise. That is, with the exception of climatic data. But our Department of Commerce is the East Anglica University of the travel industry.
One would think some bright whiz kid in the Governor’s Office would clue him in and keep him from looking like Al Gore.
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