Rhode Island Tourism Industry

Overview Statistics

Rhode Island hosted 26.2 million visitors in 2019. Increasing 3.2% over the prior year, both day (+3.4%) and overnight (+2.8%) visitors contributed to growth.
The total traveler economy surpassed $7.0 billion in 2019, registering $7.1 billion and increasing 4.0%. This includes visitor spending, tourism-related construction, and supporting industries.
The travel economy supported a total of 87,852 jobs when indirect and induced impacts are considered.
13.4% of all jobs in the state (1-in-7) are sustained by the travel economy.
Direct visitor industry employment registered 39,343 in 2019, increasing 2.2% over the prior year and marking the ninth consecutive year of growth.
Direct visitor employment growth has grown over 10% since 2015 and has averaged 2.4% each year. This compares with just 1.0% annual average employment growth in the total state economy since 2015.
Tourism in Rhode Island generated $843 million in state and local taxes in 2019. Each household in Rhode Island would need to pay $2,050 in additional taxes in the absence of the visitor economy.