Rhode Island Tourism Industry

• Rhode Island hosted 24.8 million visitors in 2017, including 7.8 million overnight visitors.
• The total traveler economy reached $6.5 billion in 2017, including visitor spending, tourism-related construction, and supporting industries.
• This represents growth of 5.4% in 2017 and cumulative growth of 23% over the past five years.
• This supported 83,913 jobs, including direct, indirect and induced impacts. This equates to one job for every 293 visitors.
• 13.1% of all jobs in the state (1-in-7.6) are sustained by the travel economy.
• Total traveler economy employment increased 4.3% from 2015 to 2017. This compares to just 1.9% employment growth for the total Rhode Island economy.
• Tourism in Rhode Island generated $775 million in state and local taxes in 2017.  Each household in Rhode Island would need to pay $1,890 in additional taxes in the absence of the visitor economy.

Reports

• Rhode Island Visitor Economic Impact Analysis 2017
• TravelHorizons Traveler Sentiment Index July 12, 2018 - July 27, 2018

Useful Research Links

• U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
• U.S. Census Bureau
• U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI)
• U.S. Travel Association (USTA)