The director of The Vance County Department of Tourism attributes increased visitor spending to a combination of marketing, a supportive board and successful events.
When specifically asked to what she attributed the 4.7 percent increase, Tourism Director Nancy Wilson said, “A very strong marketing campaign, a good board that stands behind the tourism department and our success in the events that we host and organize. It’s a combination of all of those I think.”
One of the signature events of The Vance County Department of Tourism is the annual Show, Shine, Shag and Dine. The 15th annual Show, Shine, Shag and Dine is coming up October 14th, 15th and 16th in downtown Henderson. If the past few years are any indication, some 30,000 people will attend the event to see vintage and drag cars with a total economic impact of between 2.5 and 3.0 million dollars, this data according to previous WIZS news articles quoting Wilson.
Governor Pat McCrory’s office today issued a press release (click here for full version) indicating visiting spending was up in 91 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Of those, Vance County is in the top 10 of largest percentage increases at 4.7 percent behind Polk with 11.8 percent and Cherokee with 7.8 percent.
In terms of ranking counties by actual domestic travelers’ expenditures, some counties that you might expect topped the list with Mecklenburg first, Wake second, Guilford third, Dare fourth and Buncombe fifth.
Wilson said about Vance, “We knew it was up. We can tell from collections each month. The motels have had an extremely good year. We are just tickled to death. I mean we’ve got the least number of rooms we’ve ever had, and we’ve got the largest collections, so that tells you something. They are staying full.”
Wilson reiterated the impact on retail sales tax in Vance County too, of which retail sales tax figures are up for Vance County. She said visitors are coming here and boosting the retail sales tax figures.
She said, “We’ll keep on doing what we’re doing because it must be working, and we’ll just work a little harder.”