Cape Fear counties experienced record-setting tourism spending in 2024

CAPE FEAR (WWAY) — The Cape Fear region continued to be a popular tourist destination in 2023 as two counties, New Hanover and Brunswick, exceeded $1 billion in tourism spending.

This is the second year in a row that both counties exceeded the billion-dollar mark, which ranks them in the top 10 counties in the state.

New Hanover County had a nearly 6% increase from 2022 to more than $1.1 billion in spending.

Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau president Kim Hufham said it’s great seeing people continue coming to New Hanover County and the Bureau is already looking towards the future on how to keep luring visitors back.

“We are in the midst of doing a destination master plan, which is really going to give us a real look at tourism for all of the county, countywide, and also where we need to go for the next 10 years,” Hufham said. “Looking at things such as infrastructure needs, or other needs that we might have as a county in order to improve our tourism product.”

In 2023, there was $1.2 billion in tourism spending in Brunswick County, a 7.5% increase from the previous year.

Brunswick County Tourism Development Authority executive director Mitzi York said its growth is significant in light of the pandemic.

“And I think that the fact that we’re continuing to see growth, I think speaks well of the area, what we have to attract people and also the type of marketing that we’re doing as an organization,” York said.

Brunswick County ranked 6th in visitor spending while New Hanover County is 8th.

Hufham said it’s great to see the entire Cape Fear region doing well.

“We always say a visitor doesn’t know county lines. So they like, as you said, they like to come to our region. You know, we consider ourselves a region. We especially partner a lot with Pender County and Brunswick County cause they’re our neighboring counties. But as a region, we are a very, have a very, very healthy tourism sector here and we just are excited that we’re continuing to seeing it grow and that all the counties within this area did see growth.”

Neighboring counties in the area also saw increased tourism spending, with nearly $200 million in Pender, $63 million in Columbus, and $55 million in Bladen.

In 2023, North Carolina ranked 5th in the nation for total tourism spending, with 98 of the state’s 100 counties experiencing growth from 2022.