Visitors to Madison County provided a nearly $1.3 billion economic impact in 2016, according to figures released Wednesday by the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Alabama Tourism Department.

It was the highest level ever for the county as travel and tourism provided more than 16,400 jobs. It was a 9.2 percent increase in spending on hotels, restaurants, shopping and transportation, according to the figures provided by the state.

“Travel and tourism to Madison County is big business,” CVB President/CEO Judy Ryals said. “It directly impacts the pocketbooks of local residents, and we’re excited to release this information, especially since 2017 was yet another record-breaking year for economic impact.

“We are proud of how the travel and tourism industry supports local jobs, and we are honored to serve the roughly 3.1 million visitors that traveled to Huntsville/Madison County over the past year.”

Statewide, the travel industry grew by $1 billion in 2017 to a record of $14.3 billion in expenditures, and increased jobs by 7,399 to some 186,906 employees, Gov. Kay Ivey announced. She said that the industry grew by 7 percent and attracted an additional 810,000 visitors to top 26 million guests for the first time.