WAKE COUNTY -- Wake County officials announced on Monday that the county welcomed 15.6 million visitors in 2016, the highest amount of visitors that the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau has ever reported.
Additionally, visitors in 2016 spent a total of $2.4 billion, also the highest amount the county has ever generated.
Tourism revenue made in 2016 helped saved each Wake County household $663, according to the data gathered by D.K. Shifflet & Associates and Tourism Economics. The more than $242 million in state and local tax revenues generated by tourism last year was used for education, sewer, water and other quality-of-life amentites.
For 2016, Wake County also reported the highest ever average hotel occupancy rate at 70.1 percent.
View more findings from the tourism study below: