WASHINGTON — It was another strong year for Virginia’s tourism industry with a 2.3 percent increase in revenue, reaching $23 billion in 2015.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s office released tourism data Wednesday and highlighted that the tourism industry supported 222,600 jobs in the commonwealth last year, an increase of 2.6 percent — or about 5,700 more tourism jobs — than in 2014.
“This revenue stimulates economic growth across the Commonwealth creating solid, good-paying jobs, helping to improve and grow Virginia communities, and maintaining them as best places to live and work in the country,” said Maurice Jones, the commonwealth’s secretary of commerce and trade, in a statement.
The largest increase in tourism spending was lodging with a 7.4 percent increase over 2014.
Tourism is one of the five largest industries in Virginia. According to the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the commonwealth ranks ninth in “domestic traveler spending among 50 states and D.C.”
The VTC still uses “Virginia is for Lovers”, the 47-year-old slogan to promote the state that has become the longest-running state tourism slogan in the country. It launched in 1969 from Richmond-based advertising agency Martin and Woltz Inc., now known as The Martin Agency.
“Virginia is for Lovers” was inducted into the National Advertising Walk of Fame in 2009.
