Tourism Recovery Numbers Up for Ocean County
State releases latest economic impact report
Tourism in Southern Ocean County, coastal New Jersey and the rest of the state is an integral part of the economy. Visitors generate significant economic impact to households, businesses and government. According to the recent Economic Impact Study commissioned by the NJ Division of Travel and Tourism, 2022 visitors supported a total of $73.5 Billion in sales through New Jersey businesses. Tourism generated 479,558 total jobs generated, and $5Billion in state and local taxes.Direct visitor economy employment supported significant shares of several industries in 2022 – all of lodging, 36% of recreation, 29% of food and beverage employment, and 6% of retail employment.
Visitor spending expanded 22% in 2022, recovering to 98% of 2019 levels. Of the $45.4 billion spent in New Jersey in 2022 by visitors, both lodging and food and beverage contributed $12.3 billion in sales – each representing 27% of total visitor spending. Visitors spent 17% of their total budget on shopping, 17% on transportation, and 12% on recreation and entertainment. Ocean County saw 10.30Million visitors in 2022 which contributed to 9% of the states tourism volume. This is the highest number compared from 2018, 2019,2020 and 2021.
Ocean County can report increased across the board in 2022:
- Amount of visitor supported employment shows 12% growth with 27,667 jobs
- Visitor Spending up 15.5% with over $5398.5M
- Fiscal impact Ocean County saw growth of 3.2% over contributing to over 10% statewide $515M
- Day Visitor Volume up 20.7% to 5.29M
- Overnight Visitor Volume up 10.5% to 5.01M
- Recovery in Visitor Industry Sales is second highest in state at 8.2%