Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina

Tourism in North Carolina continued its strong rebound from pandemic-driven lows, so much so that visitor spending increased to $33.3 billion in 2022, a new record that well outpaced the previous record of $28.9 billion set in 2021. 2022's performance reflected a 15% increase over the prior year and a 66% increase over pandemic lows experienced in 2020. The tourism-supported workforce in North Carolina increased 10 percent from 2021 to 216,900 jobs, though industry related jobs still lag the 2019 record of 242,600. Our visit nc team leveraged the state's brand promise of "richer experiences" through advertising, public relations, digital messaging, and more to help achieve these numbers. This strategy has proven successful in helping North Carolina compete against its peer competitive states, including many who continue to invest more aggressively in tourism marketing.

Edpnc offers another specialized service to North Carolina companies: assisting them to enter foreign markets and expand their international sales. In fiscal year 2023, the edpnc's international trade managers and foreign offices provided export assistance to 570 companies, including 166 minority- and/or women-owned companies. The assistance included providing market intelligence and strategies, product analysis, distributor searches, localization of websites and marketing materials, and support at trade shows and trade missions.

Existing industry and small business support; business Development, research and marketing.through its contract with the North Carolina department of commerce, edpnc operates as the sales and marketing arm of the state's Economic Development activities. As such, edpnc is responsible for business recruitment, existing industry and small business support, import and export assistance, marketing and research, tourism, film, and sports Development activities within the state, which all work toward the creation and retention of high quality jobs within North Carolina. Expenses related to specific programs have been shown previously.

In fiscal year 2023, the edpnc, working in tandem with local and state partners including the governor's office, n.c. department of commerce, and local Economic Development organizations, helped close deals on 131 business recruitment and expansion projects resulting in the announcement of 13,887 new jobs in North Carolina and $9.67 billion in investment. Among other highlights, this included the announcement of the largest capital investment in North Carolina history, an 1,801-job, $5 billion semiconductor project by wolfspeed in chatham county; major life science expansions by eli lilly ($450 million) in durham county and novo nordisk ($500 million) in johnston county; a 506-job, $220 million manufacturing facility for siemens mobility in davidson county; and a 440-job, $85 million food processing facility for sopakco in scotland county. The state ranks each of North Carolina's 100 counties based on Economic well-being, with a tier 1 county the most distressed, tier 2 in the middle, and tier 3 the least distressed. 90 of the 131 business recruitment and expansion deals occurred in tier 1 and 2 counties, and those projects are expected to create 6,906 new jobs and over $2.54 billion in investment.