Travel & Hospitality Make Up 20% of County’s GDP; Wages Supported by Visitors Top $1 Billion for the First Time
Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority announced today that visitors spent nearly $3 billion in 2023 throughout the destination. The 2023 study was conducted by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, that has been measuring visitor contributions to the area for more than a decade. Visit NC, the state’s tourism office, also works with Tourism Economics to track the economic benefits of visitors across the state. Their report released today showed that Buncombe County ranked as the third largest visitor economy in the state, following Mecklenburg ($5.8 billion) and just behind Wake ($3.3 billion) counties.
“Explore Asheville has the awesome job of shining a spotlight on and sharing stories about this deeply rooted, ever-evolving creative community,” said Vic Isley, president & CEO for Explore Asheville and the authority. “Nearly 2,000 Explore Asheville partner businesses and organizations both serve and benefit from guests to our community. We are grateful for travel and hospitality businesses and their team members for delivering quality experiences and services to customers every day. This virtuous cycle is what makes travel such an economic powerhouse, job creator and community builder for our Asheville, Buncombe County and the state of North Carolina.”
Isley added, “The team at Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority leadership understand the important role that travel and hospitality play in our collective economy and quality of life. Our neighbors, residents, artists, and area businesses rely on visitors to help support their livelihoods. In turn, those net new revenues to our community generate tax dollars for City and County government budgets.”
Topline data showed:
- Visitors generated a record-breaking $2.97 billion in 2023, a slight increase of 3% from the $2.88 billion generated in 2022. Three billion dollars equates to 20% of Buncombe County’s total annual economy.
- Nearly $3 billion in visitor spending benefits a wide variety of businesses – 70% of spending took place outside of lodging businesses — in restaurants and breweries, retail shops and galleries, with tour outfitters and transportation providers.
- Lodging: $901 million (30%)
- Food & Beverage: $787 million (27%)
- Retail: $541 million (18%)
- Transportation: $372 million (13%)
- Recreation & Entertainment: $366 million (12%)
- Nearly 14 million visitors traveled to Asheville and Buncombe County, including 5 million overnight guests and 9 million day-trip guests (50+ miles).
- While overnight guests made up 37% of visitor volume, they contributed 70% of visitor spending.
- On an average day in 2023, there was one visitor for every seven county residents.
- Tourism-generated income exceeded $1 billion for the first time when including indirect and induced impacts. Visitors supported 29,148 jobs in 2023, one of every seven jobs in the County.
- $265 million in state and local tax revenues were generated by the visitor economy. Buncombe County households would need to pay an additional $2,600 in taxes annually to replace the visitor-generated taxes received by state and local governments.
- One of every five dollars in City and County government revenues are supported by the visitor economy.
Read the full report here >>