The Alabama Tourism Department released its 2022 Alabama Tourism Economic Report, which shows that the travel and tourism industry in Madison County has surpassed previous estimates and brought in $2.1 billion dollars in tourism revenue.

This represents a 20% increase of the 2021 figures.

With a record 3.9 million visitors in 2022, Madison County became the second-most visited county in the state, second only to the Gulf Coast-adjacent Baldwin County.

The Saturn V rocket housed in Davidson Center for Space Exploration (Huntsville/Madison County CVB)

“We’re thrilled to see new visitor and economic impact records for Madison County,” states Judy Ryals, President and CEO of the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “With the continuing growth of the community as well as the addition of world-class facilities like The Orion Amphitheater, I’m confident that we’ll see the numbers continue to increase,” Ryals added.

This surprisingly-strong recovery of the travel and tourism industry, both for Madison County and the State of Alabama as a whole, has enabled the creation of thousands of jobs, both directly and indirectly. Economists say that for every two jobs directly within the industry, an additional job is created that is more tangentially-related to it.

The report cites the creation of 1,000 new jobs in, or related to, the industry in Madison County alone, bringing the total of jobs dependent on the travel and tourism industry to 22,000. Of those 22,000, 14,878 jobs in Madison County were directly related to travel and tourism, with an additional 7,122 jobs indirectly-related.

Statewide, 238,000 Alabamians were employed in the tourism industry. 11.3% of non-agriculture jobs in the state of Alabama in the year 2022 were travel and tourism-related, either directly or indirectly.

With high demand for travel and tourism services, tax revenue from that industry saw a corresponding boost. In Madison County alone, the Annual State Lodging Tax revenue increased by almost 20% from 2021 to 2022, bringing in $10,231,080 to the local coffers.

Because of the tax revenue generated by the travel and tourism industry, Madison County residents saved more than $1,200 each in taxes that they otherwise would have had to pay to maintain current city and county services.

Perhaps it should not be so surprising that Madison County has grown to be the second-greatest tourism draw in the state.

While Space Camp and the Space and Rocket Center has been bringing in visitors for decades now, the extensive growth and modernization that has made the city of Huntsville both the largest city in the state as well as the hub of aerospace science in the South has also made the town an attractive place to work and visit.

Huntsville’s Von Braun Center located in the heart of Downtown Huntsville (Huntsville/Madison County CVB)

Huntsville’s dining options have improved in recent years, bringing more international and artisanal cuisine to the region. The city’s sports facilities have been greatly-improved and updated. The Von Braun Center and the new Orion Amphitheater draw in crowds from around the region to see live performances. And the hospitality industry has been busy constructing new hotels and renovating older ones, to service these visitors’ lodging needs.

It is especially heartening to see the restaurant industry recovering from the vicious blow dealt to it by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, food service expenditures accounted for 27% of the travel and tourism spending statewide. That comes out to a whopping $5,990,226,296. More than half of travel-related jobs are food service jobs. Thousands upon thousands of Alabama residents are gaining employment in this field as the demand for service in the state continues to increase.

The 2022 Alabama Tourism Economic Report demonstrates just how critical this industry has become, both for Alabama and for Madison County in particular.

It creates jobs for residents, generates tax revenue for the state and local governments, and gives people from all over the chance to experience our beautiful state and city. Barring the dip from the pandemic, the Alabama tourism industry has been growing for the past 13 years.

With our eye towards the future of aerospace industries and the exciting frontier of space tourism, there’s every reason to believe that Madison County could become the leading tourism hub of not just Alabama, but the entire region.