Visitors Center Greets Record Number of Visitors

Chapel Hill, NC (July 17, 2007) – More than 13,000 visitors dropped by the Visitors Center, located at 501 West Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, between July 2006 and June 2007. The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau says the 13,632 visitors represented an 89% increase over the 2005-2006 year, which saw 7,211 tourists. The largest visitor months were April with 1,814 and June with 1,671.

Just in the last month, the center had visitors from more than 20 states from coast to coast, including California, Nevada, Washington, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Alabama, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont, as well as two foreign countries.

Recent visitors are touring the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, and families are coming for the busy summer camp season.

“We also had numerous people visiting friends and family, wedding parties, others looking to relocate, many daytrippers and others coming for a weekend getaway or multi-day vacation,“ said Patty Griffin, Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Communications Manager. “Visitors are seeking general sightseeing or shopping information, as well as ideas on where to stay or what restaurants to try. We see the gamut from couples on a romantic getaway, to families with children to retired couples.“

The Visitors Center is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The walk-in visitors center first opened in October 2002.


Did You Know?

UNC was the first state-supported university in the U.S. and enrolls nearly 30,000 students from all North Carolina counties, all U.S. states and more than 100 foreign countries.