Up & Coming Weekly

May 17, 2016

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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22 UCW MAY 18-24, 2016 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM a ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Melody Foote Director of Communications Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Liberty Point Bulletin Tourism Is Big Business for State and County NORTH CAROLINA When proclaiming May 1-7 Tourism Week in North Carolina earlier this month, Governor Pat McCrory announced that North Carolina Tourism generated record visitor spending in 2015. The state's tourism industry generated spending of $21.9 billion, which is a 2.7 increase over the previous year. It also outpaced the na onal average for growth. "Nearly 50 million people from across the United States visited North Carolina des na ons last year," Governor McCrory said. "The money they spend supports 211,400 jobs and more than 45,000 businesses." The figures are from research conducted by the US Travel Associa on on behalf of Visit North Carolina, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. "The tourism industry's success is shared across North Carolina," said John E. Skvarla III, North FEATURED EVENTS Carolina Commerce Secretary. "Tourism means jobs in all of the state's 100 coun es. In addi on, each North Carolina household saves $475 annually in state and local taxes generated by visitor expenditures. CUMBERLAND COUNTY Domes c travel to Cumberland County makes a significant annual impact on the county economy. In the last year, county tourism: • Produced $490 million in expenditures • Generated $35.7 million in state and local tax revenues, which represents a $108.39 savings to each Cumberland County resident • Placed Cumberland County 10th of North Carolina's 100 coun es in economic impact from travel and tourism. The Faye eville Area Conven on & Visitors Bureau (FACVB) works to maximize the economic impact from travel to Cumberland County. The FACVB is funded through occupancy tax collec ons, collected from overnight visitors at Cumberland County hotels and administered by the Tourism Development Authority. "Although Cumberland County residents do not fund tourism promo on efforts, they receive the benefits through tax savings and visitor spending in the community," says John Meroski, FACVB President and CEO. "Our organiza on works hard to provide excellent visitor experiences which leads to expenditures and, in turn, taxes collected." Tourism Week in North Carolina is part of Na onal Travel & Tourism Week, organized by the United States Travel Associa on. Tourism Week Activities Bureau staff had a busy week during Tourism Week. Our Tourism De- partment attended Welcome Center celebrations at the I-95N and I-95S Centers. At the events, staff, along with tourism partners, gave travelers information on Cumberland County and thanked them for traveling in North Carolina. Additionally, Director of Communica- tions Melody Foote visited local media outlets to thank them for promoting our county's amenities and reinforce the value of tourism to our community. He gave us moms...Thank you.

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