Rhode Island Tourism Industry

Overview Statistics

Rhode Island hosted 25.4 million visitors in 2018, including 8.0 million overnight visitors.
The total traveler economy reached $6.8 billion in 2018, including visitor spending, tourism-related construction, and supporting industries.
This represents growth of 4.7% in 2018 and cumulative growth of 29% over the past six years.
This supported 86,094 jobs, including direct, indirect and induced impacts. This equates to one job for every 293 visitors.
13.4% of all jobs in the state (1-in-7.5) are sustained by the travel economy.
Total traveler economy employment increased 2.6% from 2017 to 2018. This compares to just .5% employment growth for the total Rhode Island economy.
Tourism in Rhode Island generated $811 million in state and local taxes in 2018. Each household in Rhode Island would need to pay $1,969 in additional taxes in the absence of the visitor economy.