Justice, Ruby pleased with tourism’s economic impact in 2022 – WV MetroNews

DAVIS, W.Va. — State officials are calling it the best tourism year ever in the state of West Virginia.

While at the State Tourism Conference at Canaan Valley Resort State Park Monday, Gov. Jim Justice and Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby said tourism’s economic impact exceeded $7 billion in 2022. Ruby said the number means there was a 17% increase in visitor spending compared to the levels they were seeing in the years prior to the pandemic.

“The United States as a whole is only up 1%,” Ruby told WMOV. “Tourism can be as high as the ninth largest industry in the state.”

Furthermore, Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, found that visitors had direct spending of $5.3 billion last year, which is an all-time high for the state according to Ruby.

Ruby said every area of the state has seen growth and Gov. Justice deserves a lot of credit for that.

“We’ve got nine travel regions and we’re seeing growth in every single one of those,” Ruby added. “Since Governor Justice has come into office, we’re actually seeing growth in all 55 counties as well.”Gov. Justice took office in 2017. Visitor spending has grown more than $1 billion a year since 2016, according to Ruby.

Food and beverage spending reached $1.4 billion in 2022 while lodging spending surpassed $800 million for the first time ever.

“Gov. Justice’s commitment to tourism has paid off in a huge way,” Ruby said. “We’re proud of the growth we’ve been able to achieve and the impact it has on our state’s economy.

Gov. Justice spoke to more than 300 industry officials at the conference, touting the tourism numbers.

“All we had to do was turn ourselves loose and let the world see just how great West Virginia is,” Justice said.

The governor applauded Secretary Ruby right back for her work as Tourism Secretary

“You’ve done an unbelievable job taking our state’s tourism industry to the next level, and I could not be more proud,” Gov. Justice said. “Tourism’s been one of my top priorities as Governor from the very beginning of my time in office, and it’s wonderful to see our investment pay off in a major way.”

The tourism industry supports more than 53,000 jobs in West Virginia.