The Division of Tourism recently completed the 2012 analysis of international visitation to the state. The analysis concludes that in 2012, more than 669,000 international visitors spent time in North Carolina spending more than $314 million. These estimates do not include Canadian visitation.
The top countries of origin for N.C. were the U.K. (87,203) and Germany (73,847), followed by China (33,310), Mexico (32,151), Japan (29,902) and India (29,599). These top countries accounted for more than 40 percent of the international spending in the state.
Interesting information from the analysis includes:
- German visitation increased more than 20 percent from 2011, edging Germany closer to the U.K. in terms of visitor volume. U.K. visitation was up 7 percent.
- Visitors from China have the highest per person spending ($788), followed by visitors from Switzerland ($620).
- Visitors to North Carolina from India and Japan spend a larger proportion of their total spending on lodging than other Asian visitors, followed by visitors from European visitors. Visitors from South America spend the smallest proportion of total spending on lodging.
- European visitors to North Carolina tend to spend more on restaurants and dining, while visitors from South America and India spend more in supermarkets, indicating that they may be cooking in their places of lodging rather than eating out.
- German, Japanese, Swiss and Italian visitors have the highest propensity to rent cars while in North Carolina, spending a larger proportion of their total spending on auto rental and oil/gasoline than visitors from other countries.
- The proportion of total spending on clothing and jewelry rank high for all countries of origin, particularly Venezuela, China/Hong Kong and Sweden.
The report data represents conservative projected estimates by the Division based on presumptions derived from government data, market penetration data, other independent research sources and aggregate Visa usage data provided by VisaVue Travel for the period of calendar year 2012. To view the full summary report, click here.