In Durham, Shelly Green of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau says the city’s growth in 2014 can be attributed to “a lot of small things that added up to a significant increase.”
Green says Durham has continued to benefit from the area’s growing economy, which has brought more visitors to the city. She says write-ups in national publications have also helped raise the city’s profile. Pollstar Magazine and in Venues Today have reported on the Durham Performing Arts Center’s record-setting season in 2014.
“We haven’t really changed our approach,” Green says. “But we have been very successful in getting Durham on a lot of people’s radar as a great place for leisure travel.”
Ninety-seven of the state’s 100 counties saw an increase in tourism spending last year. The three that didn’t were Davie, Granville and Swain counties. Visit North Carolina Executive Director Wit Tuttle says visitor spending in those three counties was essentially flat. “They all had less than a 1 percent decline,” Tuttle says.
Statewide, visitors spent a record $21.3 billion in 2014, an increase of 5.5 percent from the previous year. State tax receipts as a result of visitor spending topped $1 billion last year, and local tax revenues coming directly from visitor spending totaled more than $636 million. Visitor expenditures supported 204,909 jobs and generated more than $4.9 billion in payroll income across North Carolina, according to the study.
Top counties for tourism spending in 2014
- Mecklenburg: $4.9 billion
- Wake: $2 billion
- Guilford: $1 billion
- Dare: $1 billion
- Buncombe: $963 million
- Forsyth: $785 million
- Durham: $700 million
- New Hanover: $508 million
- Brunswick: $496 million
- Cumberland: $490 million
Source: Visit North Carolina
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