North Carolina wrapped up 2025 with tourists leaving a massive tab behind: visitors spent a record $37.2 billion on trips to and within the state, edging past 2024’s total and padding both paychecks and tax coffers. Most of that surge came from domestic travelers, while international visitor spending dipped slightly. State officials say the influx is helping communities across North Carolina get back on their feet after last year’s storms, and they are touting the numbers during National Travel and Tourism Week as proof that the industry remains a key engine for local economies.
In a May 7 press release, Gov. Josh Stein unveiled the figures and praised the state’s across-the-map appeal, saying, "North Carolina remains a great place to visit from our beautiful shore to our breathtaking mountains." According to the governor's office, visitor spending climbed 1.3% from 2024’s $36.7 billion to more than $37.2 billion in 2025. Roughly $36.1 billion came from domestic travelers, while international visitors spent about $1.1 billion. The same announcement tallied more than $4.7 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues generated by those trips.
The numbers are preliminary findings from research commissioned by Visit North Carolina and produced by Tourism Economics, which combines federal data with lodging, air travel and survey metrics to estimate visitor spending. The model pulls from sources that include the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, STR and AirDNA, among others. Additional detail and archived economic impact reports are posted on Visit NC’s research page.
How the dollars break down
State officials report that tourism payroll rose 3.5% to $9.8 billion in 2025 and that tourism-supported employment reached about 230,997 jobs. Local and state tax receipts together topped roughly $2.7 billion. On an average day in 2025, visitors spent more than $101 million in North Carolina, which translated into an estimated $7.5 million per day in state and local tax revenue. Local coverage of the announcement picked up those statewide figures and the administration’s message about what they mean for small businesses and communities, as reported by CBS17.
“Residents of all 100 North Carolina counties benefit from the money that visitors spend,” Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley said, emphasizing how the industry supports small businesses and service-sector jobs, according to the governor's office. The administration estimates that visitor-generated tax revenue translated into average household savings of about $605 in 2025. State leaders are tying those numbers to outreach efforts designed to steer more travelers toward western counties that are still rebuilding, casting tourism promotion as both recovery strategy and economic development tool.
Looking ahead, tourism officials say they will keep pitching the state’s beaches, mountains and cities while keeping an eye on overseas trends after a 2.8% drop in international visitor spending. The record-setting declaration arrives in the middle of National Travel and Tourism Week and follows initiatives such as the "Rediscover the Unforgettable" campaign and a budget proposal to support Hurricane Helene recovery, which officials argue should help push visitor dollars deeper into the state and not just along the coast. County-level data tell a similar story, with local outlets including WITN highlighting how the statewide boom is showing up as real money in places like Pitt County.
