Reserve wing contributes to local economy

  • Published
  • Goldsboro Travel and Tourism
GOLDSBORO, N.C. --  In August, the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development announced that domestic visitors to Wayne County spent $138.58 million in 2011, an increase of 9.6% from 2010. ranked 27th in the state for travel expenditures.

Helping that bottom line is the amount spent by drilling reservists at the 916th Air Refueling Wing. Master Sgt. Dave Nickel, lodging coordinator for the wing, said the 916th has filled local hotels for years.

"We've even expanded to Kinston because of the growth with the 414th Fighter Group, 567th Red Horse and the new Training Flight," he said. The 916th spent roughly $465,000 last year on local hotels.

"The 916th uses 12,000 hotel rooms a night per year," said Betsy Rosemann, director of tourism for the city of Goldsboro. "Seymour Johnson is what sets us apart from neighboring counties." Rosemann explained that is isn't just the local hotels benefitting by the base either.

"With the hotel nights money also spreads to local retail shops, gas stations and restaurants," she said. "When the wing goes through inspections that also bolsters the numbers."

Rosemann said that Seymour Johnson's monthly base tour program is also a large contributor to the bottom line. "Most of the base tours we book now are from people who live at least an hour from the base."

Gov. Beverly Perdue announced in May that visitors to North Carolina spent a record $18.4 billion in 2011, an increase of 8.2 percent from 2010.

These statistics are from the "2011 Economic Impact of Travel on North Carolina Counties." The study was prepared for the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development by the U.S. Travel Association.

Statewide highlights include:

 State tax receipts as a result of visitor spending neared $1 billion in 2011 and have increased nearly 52 percent in the last 10 years.

 Visitors spend more than $50 million per day in North Carolina and contribute over $4.3 million per day in state and local tax revenues as a result of that spending (nearly $3 million in state taxes and over $1.5 million in local taxes).

 The travel and tourism industry directly employees nearly 200,000 North Carolinians.