Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, the Roanoke region’s tourism marketing organization, saw a second consecutive year of record visitor spending in the region in 2025, president Landon Howard said during a press conference Thursday morning.
“Tourism is a real industry for Virginia’s Blue Ridge, in this region,” he said. In 2025, direct visitor spending in the area amounted to over $970 million, with $47 million in local taxes collected — coming from recreation, transportation, food and beverage, gifts, and retail and hotels and lodging.
The Roanoke region outpaced the state’s growth over the past year in tourism. Year over year, the region saw 5.3% growth in spending, while the state saw 3.1% growth.
And the group expects a third year of record growth next year, Vice President Debora Wright said Thursday. She said year over year, revenues for this year are up 3%. The visitor spending numbers are based on data from the state, she said.
Howard said over 7,500 full-time, travel-related jobs in the valley can be attributed to visitor spending.
The group also announced a new conference coming to the valley for 2027 — the Outdoor Writers Association of America will hold its 100th conference in the region.
This event will bring about 300 attendees to the Roanoke area, about 200 of whom are expected to be outdoor and travel journalists representing major national outlets. VBR participated in a year-long bid process to be the destination for the event.
Also next year, the region will host the USA Cycling Endurance Mountain Bike National Championships for the third year in a row.
USA Cycling announced in June that it would be coming to Roanoke for the 2027 races. This year’s races took place in July at Carvins Cove, Elmwood Park and Explore Park.
This summer, the event brought over 1,000 athletes and 22,000 spectators to Roanoke city and county, resulting in over $3 million in direct visitor spending, officials estimate. Wright said she hopes to see even more athletes participating next year.
Roanoke, Roanoke County, Salem and Botetourt County saw a 10% increase year-over-year in hotel room demand. This year, the championships saw 100 more athletes than last year and were hosted for an additional day.
Almost $22,000 was raised through $10 race registration fees, which will be split evenly between Roanoke’s city and county parks and recreation departments to fund trail maintenance and development in the two localities.
“We keep building momentum year after year with the continued increase in record numbers,” Wright said after the press conference, attributing that to new programs and initiatives, like a spring marketing campaign the group launched from March to June that saw over $17 million in visitor spending.
