Some coastal towns in the U.S. spend a lot more on tourism marketing than Wilmington.

Myrtle Beach, for example, allocates about $50 million, while the Wilmington & Beaches CVB’s budget is less than a quarter of that, according to local tourism officials.

Despite this, a tourism survey showed that more people continue to discover the Wilmington area.

“Awareness of Wilmington & Beaches has significantly increased from the previous year, even as we compete with beaches that outspend us on marketing,” stated the results of the survey, which was conducted for the Wilmington & Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau by analytics firm Future Partners.

The survey of 1,800 people in the U.S. targeted a very specific demographic: leisure travelers ages 25 and older with household incomes of $100,000 who had traveled for leisure (50 or more miles from home) at least once in the past 12 months. They also had to have plans to travel at least 50 miles from home at least once in the next 12 months and reside in key feeder markets.

“One big win for us this year is the lift that we saw in awareness,” said Rachel Cobb, of Charlotte-based marketing and strategy firm Mythic, who presented the survey results for the Wilmington & Beaches CVB in September. “Our awareness numbers jumped to 69% (in 2024), up from 64% (in 2023), and that’s some great traction on a measure that’s really hard to move.”

Cobb spoke Sept. 18 at a CVB event for “Destination on the RISE,” a new collaborative effort to create the area’s first 10-year tourism master plan. “RISE” stands for resilience, innovation, sustainability and economics.

For the awareness question, Myrtle Beach’s percentage was high, at 93, but stayed the same between 2023 and 2024.

Despite the local 5 percentage point increase, lack of awareness and familiarity continue to be significant barriers to visiting Wilmington and local beaches, according to the survey.

Among respondents, excitement to visit and past visitation to the area showed positive trends, but destination familiarity and appeal “continue to be areas of focus,” the survey showed.
Not all results were positive.

According to the survey, “The majority of the people who find W&B unappealing and don’t have plans to visit fall into a common segment of older, retired people that don’t have children living in the home. And they do represent a big enough segment of our respondents to have a sizable impact on the study (9.4% find W&B unappealing; 19.9% don’t plan to visit).”

But the good news, the survey results stated, is that “older people/Boomers are traveling more than ever and plan to spend more money on travel than any other segment. As such, we’ve already started to target this group even more – we’ve increased our media target to 69 years, and we plan to feature older people/couples more in our advertising.”

“So hopefully this time next year, we can show improved metrics with the Boomers – higher awareness, familiarity, appeal and likelihood to visitation.”

Cobb pointed out that visitors’ likelihood to visit has increased yearly since 2001, up to 49% now.

“Importantly, the rate of increase that we’re experiencing is faster or more considerable than our competitors. So that’s a great indicator for us,” she said.

The information will help the CVB with its tourism master plan process.

David Holder, co-founder of destination development company Clarity of Place, said Sept. 18 that a stakeholder survey and resident sentiment survey are part of the tourism master plan journey. The CVB announced Oct. 14 that the resident sentiment survey, available at ResidentsSurvey.com, would be open to residents until Oct. 28.

“We take all of that information, and it’s kind of like making soup. You throw it into the pot, you stir it up a little bit, and that’s what helps us understand where are their needs, where are their opportunities, and then convert that into the master plan for the entire county,” Holder said. “But also looking at the specific needs of our beach communities and making certain they have very clear tourism master plans as well. All of that gets integrated in the program of work, into our budgeting, into our marketing.”

Kim Hufham, president and CEO of the Wilmington & Beaches CVB, said the tourism master plan is expected to be completed by mid- to late-January.

“We are committed to developing a Tourism Master Plan that reflects as many community voices as possible,” Hufham said in a news release about the resident sentiment survey.