Virginia Beach welcomed 14.3 million visitors in 2024, a 1.9% increase over 2023.
Tourism spending creates earning opportunities in transportation, trip planning, events, creative work, property care, recreation, and marketing.
Day visitors accounted for 58.8% of visitor volume, which matters because many travelers spend money in the city without booking lodging. Short visits can still generate demand for rides, activities, tours, shopping, photography, and event-related work.
Residents can use existing professional skills to earn a share of that visitor spending without taking a traditional hotel or restaurant job.
Become a Travel Agent
Travel agents and independent travel advisors plan trips, arrange reservations, build itineraries, coordinate group bookings, and help clients select:
- Flights
- Lodging
- Cruises
- Activities
Income can include supplier commissions and client planning fees.
Specializing can also help advisors target travelers with specific needs, including family vacations, cruises, destination weddings, beach trips, conferences, and corporate travel.
People researching a travel agent license can also consider a host agency such as Yeti Travel, which offers commission opportunities with more than 100 brands.
Business travel was Virginia Beach’s fastest-growing visitor segment in 2024.
Advisors who focus on conferences, corporate trips, and organized groups can use that growth to build a more specialized client base.
Work as a Local Tour Guide
Locals can organize walking outings, food tours, photography sessions, bike trips, nature activities, history-focused experiences, or private coastal excursions.
A high share of day visitors creates a useful market for shorter activities.
Travelers with only a few hours available may prefer organized experiences that fit into a limited schedule.
Potential tour formats include:
- Food-focused neighborhood outings
- Coastal photography walks
- Bike excursions
- Nature and wildlife activities
- Private family outings
- Customized small-group experiences
Pricing can vary based on duration, group size, transportation, included activities, and customization.
A solid example of being successful in turning tourism into something indirectly profitable is Virginia Beach muralist Tessa Hall Duquette, who tells us about her story of turning local expertise into a visitor experience.
She leads walking tours through the ViBe Creative District, sharing firsthand knowledge about murals, artists, and the stories behind the neighborhood’s public art.
Her work shows that residents do not need a conventional tourism background to become guides. Expertise in art, food, nature, history, or another local subject can become the basis for a paid tour.
Offer Photography and Content Creation
Families, couples, wedding groups, sports participants, and event attendees may pay for professional photos or video during their visit.
Commercial clients create another source of work.
Vacation rentals, restaurants, attractions, event organizers, and tourism companies regularly need images and video for websites, booking pages, advertisements, and social media.
Creative professionals can build several revenue streams:
- Vacation and family photo sessions
- Engagement and proposal photography
- Wedding and private-event coverage
- Short-form promotional videos
- Vacation-rental photography
- Commercial content packages
Earn Through Transportation
Visitor transportation spending in Virginia Beach reached approximately $266 million in 2023.
That figure included taxis, buses, parking, public transportation, rental cars, and gasoline.
Residents can participate through rideshare driving, airport transfers, private driving, shuttles, and group transportation.
Virginia’s Blue Ridge recorded another $235 million in visitor transportation spending during 2023, showing how significant mobility spending can become within Virginia tourism markets.
Day trips, conferences, weddings, tournaments, and group travel can create additional transportation demand.
Airport pickups, venue transfers, scheduled group rides, and private transportation can be especially useful when many visitors arrive at the same time.
Work in Events and Entertainment
Conferences, weddings, tournaments, festivals, graduations, races, and private celebrations create paid work across many occupations.
Virginia Beach Convention Center has welcomed nearly 10 million guests since opening and hosts conventions, conferences, sporting events, craft shows, race expos, and other gatherings.
More than 260 high school and college graduations have also taken place there.
Large events can create demand for several types of workers at once:
- Event planners and coordinators
- DJs and entertainers
- Photographers and videographers
- Audio and visual technicians
- Decorators
- Setup crews
- Rental companies
- Vendor coordinators
Residents do not need to operate full event companies. One specialized skill, such as photography, sound production, decoration, or coordination, can provide an entry point.
Provide Marketing and Professional Work to Tourism Businesses
Restaurants, attractions, vacation rentals, tour companies, event organizers, and entertainment businesses compete for visitor attention. Many need marketing expertise without having enough work to employ a full-time specialist.
Freelancers can earn tourism-related income through:
- Web design
- Graphic design
- Copywriting
- Photography
- Search engine optimization
- Digital advertising
- Email marketing
- Social media management
Specific needs can change throughout the year.
A vacation rental may need new listing photos before summer, while an event organizer may need advertising aimed at travelers in nearby cities.
Several skills fit naturally into this market:
- Web design for booking-focused sites
- SEO for travel-related searches
- Paid advertising campaigns
- Social-media management
- Promotional photography
- Graphic design for event and tourism materials
Regional tourism experience has also shown that destination-marketing partnerships can help event organizers reach customers outside their immediate area and increase overnight stays.
Provide Vacation-Rental Support
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Lodging accounted for 27% of Virginia Beach visitor spending in 2024. Hotels, second homes, and short-term rentals were included in that category.
Virginia Beach visitors spent approximately $678 million on lodging in 2023, including hotels, motels, and private homes.
Vacation properties require ongoing work before, during, and after guest stays. Residents can earn income through cleaning, maintenance, landscaping, photography, guest communication, property checks, and listing management.
Owners who live outside Virginia Beach may especially value dependable local workers who can respond quickly when a guest or property issue occurs.
Virginia Beach Tourism’s Wider Economic Impact
Virginia Beach visitors spent approximately $2.6 billion in 2024. Indirect and induced activity pushed total economic impact to roughly $3.9 billion.
Tourism supported 32,704 jobs, equal to about 19% of all jobs in Virginia Beach, while producing $340.8 million in state and local tax revenue.
Growth was already evident in 2023, when 14.1 million visitors generated about $2.5 billion in direct spending and $3.8 billion in total economic impact. Tourism supported 33,836 jobs that year.
Spending across several 2023 categories shows how tourism money reaches many types of work:
- Approximately $266 million went to transportation.
- Approximately $275 million went to recreation and entertainment.
- Approximately $224 million went to retail.
- Approximately $678 million went to lodging.
Virginia’s Blue Ridge provides another example of the broader economic pattern. Visitors generated $882.2 million in direct spending and $1.356 billion in total economic impact there during 2023, directly supporting 7,280 jobs.
Figures across these categories show why tourism income is not limited to conventional hospitality employment.
FAQs
Summary
Virginia Beach’s 14.3 million annual visitors create potential customers for travel advisors, guides, drivers, photographers, event professionals, marketers, property workers, and other local specialists.
Residents can begin by identifying skills they already possess and matching them with problems travelers or tourism-dependent businesses need solved.
Tourism generated approximately $2.6 billion in visitor spending during 2024, giving Virginia Beach residents many ways to participate without working at a hotel or restaurant.
