After another solid year of tourism, Dare County is on pace to see even more increases in tax and occupancy collections in 2017.
Dare County recorded a 7 percent increase in rental revenue during June with $79,240,527 in occupancy income compared to June of 2016, Lee Nettles, the managing director of the Dare County Tourism Board, said.
The total, he said, does not reflect variables among individual business, some of which saw seasonal ups and others, downward or break-even trends.
While that puts revenue so far this year 11 percent above 2016, Dare County is likely to lose its standing as fourth among the state’s 100 counties in tourism dollars, Nettles said in a presentation to the Dare County Board of Commissioners last week.
Buncombe County, which includes Asheville in the western mountains, is right on Dare’s heels and will soon move into fourth place primarily because it added about 25 percent more hotel rooms in the past two or three years, Nettles said.
With limited land and environmental restrictions under the Coastal Area Management Act, “we simply don’t have the potential for expansion,” Nettles said. “And, you know, some would argue that’s a good thing. It keeps it what we are and keeps people coming back for that experience.”
July of this year will likely show returns a little under last year, primarily because of a record jump of 18 percent in July 2016 over the same month in 2015 and this year’s power outage on Hatteras Island, Nettles said.
Power was off for about a week after transmission cables were cut in a construction accident at the site of the Bonner Bridge replacement project. A common misconception was that the outage had affected the entire Outer Banks, Nettles said. Hatteras represents about 25 percent of the county’s tourism traffic and only areas south of Oregon Inlet were affected.
When power was restored, the Bureau produced a video “Hatteras is On” featuring local businesses that drew 383,000 views and reached 791,313 people, Nettles said.
Social media have provided a big boost in exposure, Nettles said. People tend to gravitate to social media sites they trust, and the Visitors Bureau has focused on marketing on the more popular sites.
Shelly Island, the sandbar off the Point on Hatteras Island, has been a draw in itself, if not in actual tourism dollars, at least in interest. Nettles said a feature produced by the Bureau was its top video, with a reach of 1.5 million people.
In 2016, the county saw a 4.5 percent increase in tourism dollars. According to state figures, the economic impact was $1.1 billion, producing $102.31 million in state and local taxes.
Mecklenburg, Wake and Guilford counties are the state’s top three.
OBX Real Estate 