COLUMBIA, S.C. — 15 million visitors walked the streets of the Capital City in 2021, according to Experience Columbia. That statistic is in line with what Columbia was seeing before the pandemic.
Meaning, the tourism industry is on the up. Agriculture and tourism are the two major areas of economy in the state.
The reason tourism has a promising outlook is thanks to creativity, safety procedures and perseverance that got the city of Columbia through recent pandemic years.
"All of the outreach we have done to let people know they can travel here throughout the pandemic. We had lots of great outdoor spaces for them to enjoy, outdoor dining, recreation, things like that. But then, if they tried it during the pandemic, they're coming back. So they're saying okay well we didn't get to do this during COVID because it was closed, but when we come back we're going to do x, y or z," said Kelly Barbrey, VP of marketing at Experience Columbia SC.
The Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center hit its all time record with hosting 44 events in October 2022. That's never been the case since it opened in 2004.
Even through the pandemic, South Carolina was seeing growth, because states like North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania were closed for large gatherings and South Carolina was open.
Although there was a dip from 15 million visitors to 11 million visitors in 2020 it's bounced back to 15 million, and from 2019 to 2020 there were half as many attendees at sports events, but 20% more overnight stays at hotels.
To keep growing in tourism, local leaders explain Columbia residents need to advocate the area's perks and more facilities are needed.
"Indoor basketball volleyball facility, an eight-court indoor facility, that would get us up to the Myrtle Beaches and the Rock Hills and the other folks in North Carolina that have those facilities. A larger, turf baseball complex that has maybe ten fields, but because it's artificial turf, it would hold more games. You don't have to worry about the grass being worn out and they can also be converted into other things. You can do lacrosse, you can do soccer. And if we were able to have a big open complex, that we could have 16 soccer fields," said Scott Powers, executive director of Experience Columbia SC Sports.
Experience Columbia SC tells News 19 that tourism boosts the Columbia region economy by $2.4B, generating $120M in state and local taxes and its responsible for 21,000 jobs.