The tourism industry in North Carolina is going swimmingly, and, as for Guilford County – well, it’s doing better than most of the state in that category.
North Carolina’s tourism economy kept humming along in 2024, with visitors spending a total of $36.7 billion across all 100 counties. That’s a 3.1 percent increase over the prior year and it’s another sign that the state’s hospitality and travel sector has settled into a steady post-pandemic rebound.
The newest report – released through the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners – shows that tourism dollars weren’t spread evenly across the map. Some counties surged, others slipped, and a handful of the state’s biggest visitor destinations actually saw declines.
However, the statewide headline number was solid, and the growth was broad enough that 71 counties reported higher visitor spending than the year before.
The lodging, food-and-beverage, retail and recreation categories continued to benefit the most.
Visitors came to the beaches, the mountains and everywhere in between. Day-trippers contributed some, but overnight stays remained the biggest driver of revenue.
One of the most interesting takeaways of the report is how several Piedmont counties – far from the Outer Banks and far from the Blue Ridge Parkway – posted the strongest gains. If you ever needed proof that tourism isn’t limited to the state’s coastal or mountain regions, the new 2024 data makes that point clearly.
And Guilford County is excelling in the tourism game.
While the statewide growth rate came in at 3.1 percent, Guilford County’s visitor spending jumped to roughly $1.79 billion in 2024 – an increase of about 6.6 to 6.8 percent depending on the category. That puts the Piedmont Triad’s largest county well above the statewide average and places it among the top ten counties in North Carolina for total visitor spending.
Local tourism officials said earlier this year that their investments in events, downtown improvements and hospitality infrastructure are paying off: Greensboro’s festival calendar continues to expand; High Point’s furniture-and-design economy brings in thousands of visitors annually; add in the ACC sports traffic, concerts, youth-sports tournaments, conventions and regular business travel, and the pieces fall into place.
The 2023 numbers already showed that Guilford was moving in the right direction. Visitor spending rose 8.7 percent that year, reaching almost $1.7 billion. Tourism supported more than 11,500 direct jobs – one of the highest tourism-employment totals in the state.
The 2024 increase builds on that foundation and suggests that the broader Triad market is becoming one of the state’s most stable and diverse tourism draws.
In contrast, several major tourism centers saw declines in 2024. Buncombe County’s visitor spending dropped by more than ten percent, and Dare County slipped by just over two percent. Those counties still remain giants in the statewide rankings; however, their year-over-year downturn highlights how competitive the tourism landscape has become. Rising costs, shifting travel patterns and post-pandemic adjustments all play a role.
Guilford County, meanwhile, is moving solidly in the right direction.
Part of the reason may be the variety of offerings. Visitors come for sports, the arts, shopping, dining, festivals, the college scene and High Point’s international world famous furniture market.
Also, Guilford County isn’t dependent on weather or peak seasons, and it has a large inventory of hotels. Those hotels help keep the county’s tourism tax base stable and, when occupancy rises, the revenue impact is immediate.
Tourism spending also reduces the tax burden on local residents – something the Board of Commissioners never does these days.
In 2023, Visit Greensboro estimated that Guilford County households saved roughly two hundred dollars each in local and state taxes because of visitor spending. With the 2024 numbers coming in even higher than that, the tax-relief impact likely grew as well.
Statewide, the picture is mixed but mostly positive. Dozens of rural counties saw meaningful gains in 2024, some of them posting double-digit increases. Cleveland County was up 14 percent. Iredell, Stokes and Union Counties all grew by more than 11 percent. Cabarrus County – home to the Charlotte Motor Speedway and a growing mix of entertainment attractions – jumped nearly nine percent.
Those counties might not be as widely known as North Carolina’s household-name destinations, but they’re winning big in the new tourism landscape. Growth is no longer limited to beaches and mountains. The counties with a diversified lineup of events, accessible lodging and ongoing investment in downtowns and recreation are often the ones seeing the fastest increases.
