Tourists spent

more in 2007
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Visitors to North Carolina spent a record $16.5 billion in 2007, an increase of 7.2 percent from 2006.

The number broke the previous high of $15.4 billion set in 2006.

Though regional and county travel statistics have not yet been released, local tourism showed signs of strength last year based on lodging occupancy, though sales tax revenue was fairly flat.

High Country Host executive director Judy Donaghy, whose agency promotes tourism and travel in a seven-county region, said while last year was robust, 2008 may be a little bit sluggish.

“Frankly, right now we’re seeing a little bit of a downturn,” she said.

“We’re being affected by gas prices, the economy, and always in a presidential election year it slows down. That’s been true for election years in the last 20 years. People are just a little uncertain.”

Donaghy said feedback she’d received from the local ski slopes indicated they’d had an excellent year, despite a late start and a relatively dry winter.

“Once they got open, they were able to stay open consistently,” she said.

Donaghy said despite the expected slowdown in tourism, local occupancy tax will likely stay strong because of additional rooms and higher room rates.

“I don’t think we’ll see a downturn in occupancy tax,” he said.

The statewide visitor spending figures are the preliminary results of an annual study conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America.

The study uses sales and tax revenue data and employment figures to determine the overall impact of visitor spending in North Carolina.

“We are pleased that visitors continue to enjoy traveling to and within our state and that they are spending record amounts of money in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties,” said Lynn Minges, executive director of the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development.

“This spending helps support thousands of small and medium-sized businesses across the state. It helps support jobs for our state’s citizens and generates important tax revenues for state and local economies.”

Since the start of 2001, visitor expenditures in North Carolina have increased 36.9 percent from $12 billion to $16.5 billion.

Local tax receipts have increased 33 percent and state tax receipts have increased 22 percent.

The travel and tourism industry employs more than 190,000 North Carolinians and generates more than $1.3 billion in tax revenues.

State tax revenue totaled $815 million, and about $529 million in local taxes were generated from sales and property tax revenue from travel-generated and travel-supported businesses.

At the conference, Grady and Reba Moretz, owners of Appalachian Ski Mountain in Blowing Rock, received the 2008 Winner’s Circle award, along with Todd Morse, Bruton Smith and the late Frank Capra Jr.

The High Country Host is targeting its 2008 promotion to the “drive market,” figuring people will still want their getaways but will likely stay closer to home.

“We are really concentrating on things close to us in view of the gas situation,” Donaghy said.

“We can draw people from a three- or four-hour drive instead of Florida or a longer distance. The High Country has always done fairly well in downturn years, because we have Charlotte and Raleigh, and those people want to come to the mountains.”