WASHINGTON — The Virginia Tourism Corporation says 2016 was a record year for Virginia’s tourism industry, with $24 billion in revenue, which is up 3.3 percent from a year earlier.
That outpaces the national growth rate of 2.7 percent.
Tourism, one of the five largest industries in the Commonwealth, supported 230,000 jobs in Virginia last year, almost 6,200 more tourism jobs than in 2015.
Those employed in Virginia’s tourism industry earned a collective $5.7 billion in income in 2016, up 5.9 percent from 2015.
“In addition to Virginia’s historic and globally recognized tourism attributes, the industry is consistently creating new and diverse product that is spurring economic growth and job creation across the Commonwealth,” said Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Todd Haymore.
In April, Virginia’s tourism department reported the Commonwealth’s agritourism business is now a $2.2 billion industry in itself, with Loudoun County accounting for more than half Northern Virginia’s agritourism dollars.
