Monday, November 25, 2024 Nebraska tourism thrives with record $4.6B visitor spending in 2023, a 29.4% surge since 2019, outpacing national growth and boosting state and local economies.
Since the introduction of innovative marketing and branding strategies in 2019, Nebraska’s tourism industry has witnessed remarkable expansion. Visitor spending, business earnings, and tax revenue have surged by approximately 30% over this period. Visitor expenditures soared from $3.
5 billion in 2019 to an unprecedented $4.6 billion in 2023—a 29.4% rise that significantly outpaces the national growth rate of just 7%.
Visit Nebraska’s primary goal is to attract out-of-state visitors, boosting the local economy with fresh revenue streams. The number of overnight stays nearly doubled, reaching 12.6 million in 2023, an increase of 311,000 compared to the previous year.
Out-of-state travelers accounted for 76% of these visits, showcasing the state’s growing appeal beyond its borders. According to Dean Runyan Associates, which has analyzed Nebraska’s tourism impact for nearly 20 years, lodging revenue in the state jumped by 26.4% between 2019 and 2022.
This is a stark contrast to the national average of 2.5%. While national data for 2023 is still pending, the firm highlights Nebraska’s impressive growth as noteworthy.
This state-level success extends to local counties as well. With counties permitted to levy up to a 4% lodging tax, revenue from this source surged by 33.6% between 2019 a.