Report by market researchers Dean Runyan Associates shows that travelers spent more than $4.6B in WV in 2018, up 6.5% from 2017, with overall spend growth of 9.9% since the start of the "Almost Heaven" campaign in 2016.
WV tourism is worth about $535M annually in tax revenues.
A cooperative advertising program run by the WV Tourism Office that matches investment by businesses 1:1 in promotion that's consistent with the Almost Heaven campaign has brought in $2.5M in private investment.
The WV Development Office provides tax breaks of up to 25% on construction projects that benefit tourism infrastructure, a program that produced more than $234 in private-sector investment in 2019.