West Virginia
An Outdoor Awakening
Tourism has become a powerful force in West Virginia, where officials have seen impressive growth even in recent years.
“Travel spending by visitors was nearly $5.1 billion in 2012,” said Tina Stinson, director of special projects and strategic initiatives for the West Virginia Division of Tourism. “The visitor spending in our state directly supported over 46,000 jobs.
“We continue to grow. One of our most recent studies, released in September, found that the number of overnight trips in West Virginia has increased from 13.6 million in 2009 to 15.2 million in 2013.”
Some of that growth can be attributed to the emergence of West Virginia as an outdoor adventure destination. The first white-water rafting outfitter opened in the New River Gorge in 1968. Today, the New River, Gauley River, Cheat River and others around the state are considered world-class rafting destinations, offering a full range of other activities and amenities.
“Several rafting companies have consolidated into resorts offering lodging and restaurants, zip-line and canopy tours, horseback riding, aerial adventure parks, rock climbing, stand-up paddleboarding and more,” Stinson said.
In winter, attention turns to skiing. Two major ski resorts — Snowshoe Mountain and Winterplace — were founded in the past 50 years, and villages with other lodging, dining, shopping and attractions have sprung up around the ski slopes. Stinson said that the five-month ski season has an estimated economic impact of more than $250 million and creates more than 5,000 jobs.
South Carolina
Discovering the Coast
Fifty years ago, South Carolina was on the verge of establishing its Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, an organization that helped boost travel as an economic development tool for the state. At the same time, the creation of the Interstate Highway System allowed travelers new access to coastal destinations, which would become popular throughout the eastern United States.
“The Myrtle Beach area had traditionally been an area of family cottages, and access wasn’t all that easy,” said Marion Edmonds, spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. “But by the early ’60s, highways leading in to that area made it much easier. So you began to see motels and hotels take the place of a lot of the beach cottages.”
At the same time, Edmonds said, visionary developers began to carve out an upscale resort community on Hilton Head Island. And soon, a nationwide preservation movement brought renewed attention to Charleston, the most complete Colonial city left in the United States.
Together, these three areas caused a boom in tourism traffic that echoed across the state. Destinations in the mountains and low country of South Carolina have grown as sports tourism destinations, and outdoors lovers have come to appreciate the range of adventure activities available throughout the area.
Moving forward, Edmonds said, the state will continue to leverage the appeal of its coastal destinations to help market other cities and towns throughout South Carolina.
“We’re beginning to move our state focus toward helping to develop tourism potential in what we call the undiscovered South Carolina,” she said. “They have local charm, folkways and cuisine that people find so attractive.”
