Gov. Patrick Morrisey offers remarks to open the 2025 Governor’s Conference on Tourism Tuesday morning in Morgantown. Tourism’s overall impact on West Virginia’s economy surpassed $9 billion last year. (Photo by Ben Conley/The Dominion Post)

MORGANTOWN — Could you imagine if the entire combined populations of California and Texas visited West Virginia in the span of one year?

It’s a rhetorical question, of course, but it requires no real imagination.

Because you’d also have to tack on the population of Virginia to hit a number comparable to the 77.2 million people that made their way to the Mountain State last year.

That’s somewhere north of 43 visitors for each of the approximately 1.77 million people who call West Virginia home. That not only represents an all-time high for visitors to the state, but the highest tourism saturation rate per capita in the nation.

This is a small sampling of the data presented Tuesday as the 2025 Governor’s Conference on Tourism kicked off at Morgantown’s Marriott at Waterfront Place.

Chelsea Ruby, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Tourism, addresses the state’s tourism and hospitality professionals Tuesday during the 2025 Governor’s Conference on Tourism at Morgantown’s Marriott at Waterfront Place. (Photo by Ben Conley/The Dominion Post)

During the event, the hotel and conference center were buzzing with the tourism, travel and hospitality professionals who’ve made bringing people to West Virginia their business.

And business is booming.

On average, people staying in or traveling through West Virginia spend $18 million per day. Over the course of last year, that amounted to direct spending of $6.6 billion and an overall impact of $9.1 billion on the state’s economy – all high-water marks for the state.

With tourism putting up those kinds of numbers, it’s no surprise Gov. Patrick Morrisey was on-hand to deliver the conference’s opening remarks.

In short, he said he intends to double down on that success by accelerating investments that highlight the state’s natural strengths.

“Your hard work is paying off, and when it comes to tourism, West Virginia isn’t just competing in the Backyard Brawl, we’re dominating it – dominating it,” he said. “Compared to all the states we touch, tourism is one area where we really stand out … Our state is a gem unlike any other in America, and I want to emphasize that I view tourism as one of the fundamental ways we’re going to grow as a state.”

Morrisey said New River Gorge National Park welcomed a record 1.8 million visitors in the past year, representing a 50% increase since it was designated a national park in 2021. Harpers Ferry National Historic Park saw nearly 490,000 visitors last year, a 15% jump over the two years prior.

To get some perspective on the rocket ride West Virginia tourism has experienced in recent years, West Virginia Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby looked back to 2019, the last year before the government response to COVID-19 all but suffocated the travel and hospitality industry.

“Let’s compare ourselves to 2019. If you were at this conference in 2019, you remember we had balloons. We had buttons. We celebrated because we were so excited. It was a huge increase for us – highest ever. Today, we are 28.2% percent higher than we were in 2019. So we have not only recovered, but we have grown 28.2% in spending,” Ruby said, noting the national average is 12.4% over 2019 levels.

“So, we have more people coming, they’re staying longer and they’re spending more money,” she said.