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Virginia Tourism: Page County visitor spending seen at $109 million in 2023; lodging and recreation drive local impact
Summary
Dan Roberts of the Virginia Tourism Corporation told the board Page County's 2023 visitor spending was about $109 million, with lodging accounting for 38% and recreation 21%; visitor-paid local revenue totaled roughly $5.6 million and visitors offset about $925 per local household in tax burden.
Dan Roberts, vice president of research and strategy for the Virginia Tourism Corporation, presented county-level tourism metrics showing Page County's 2023 visitor spending at approximately $109,000,000. He said the county outperformed many localities during the post-pandemic recovery and ranked 10th out of Virginia's 133 localities in 2021 relative to 2019 baseline levels.
Roberts broke down the 2023 spending by sector: lodging accounted for about 38% of visitor spending; recreation (attractions and ticketed activities) was about $22,500,000 (21% of the county total), retail roughly $18,700,000 (17%), transportation about $11,000,000 (10%), and food and beverage about 14%. He said recreation's share in Page County exceeds the statewide average, reflecting the county's outdoor amenities.
The presentation showed tourism employment in the county recovered to pre-pandemic levels (just over 1,000 tourism-related jobs). Roberts said visitors paid an estimated $88,600,000 in revenue to state and local governments in 2023, with roughly $3,000,000 in state-level receipts (largely sales tax) and about $5,600,000 in local receipts (largely property tax and transient occupancy and meals taxes). Roberts said those visitor-paid revenues reduce residents' tax burdens by about $925 per household.
He noted 2024 indicators showed some softness among budget-conscious leisure travelers and that higher-income travelers have held up better; the agency expects trends to moderate in 2025. Roberts encouraged supervisors to use the county-level data for planning, economic development and tourism marketing coordination with the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
