Wilmington ranks third among trending US travel destinations

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A new report from the travel site Hopper ranks Wilmington third among trending domestic travel destinations.  

“We feel like some of our efforts may finally be coming around, especially in our out of state and further away markets,” Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Kim Hufham said. 

Hufham notes while Wilmington was once known as a small beach town, that image has shifted in recent decades.  

Visitors used to stay at the beach, now they split their time between the beaches and the downtown riverwalk.  

That combination, along with more out of state marketing, has helped push Wilmington’s tourism economy to more than $1 billion annually.  

“We’re not just a beach town, we’re not just a riverfront city. We really are a very unique destination in that we have both,” Hufham said. 

We asked tourists in downtown Wilmington what brought them to the Port City.  

 Many say it’s the area’s unique historical charm.  

“I’ve never really seen a place with more history in Ameria. Honestly, I’m not really surrounded by that. They don’t really teach stuff like that in New York City,” one traveler staying with a college friend said. 

“Restaurants are really good, people are really friendly,” another traveler visiting from Columbus, Ohio noted. 

“It retains some of the original charm,” a visitor from Raleigh said. 

While others say they fell in love with Wilmington from television or movies.  

“[I] was a big fan of One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek, so grew up with Wilmington in a way,” a visitor from Ashville said.  

Though, as more people visit the area—Hufham notes—infrastructure will have to keep up. Even small improvements, she says, can make a difference for visitors and the people who call the area home.  

“One of the things that we hope will be more of a short-term solution is signage. We feel like, you know, if you can have the signage that helps people navigate your destination, that’s a big help,” she said. 

Hufham says another thing that’s given a big boost to Wilmington’s tourism economy is expanded air service at Wilmington International Airport, which added more than a dozen routes this year alone.