The Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corp. touted the benefits of tourism and another strides Carbon County is making during the 2024 State of the County on Oct. 3 at Blue Mountain Resort.

“Carbon County is a great place to live, work and play,” said Brenda Sacco, the director of economic development for the Carbon Chamber.

Sacco said the median income in Carbon County is $58,626, placing the county as the 15th highest in the state. The average hourly pay rate in Carbon County is $25.04.

The top employers are health care and tourism, but government is also a large employer in the area. The county has the lowest unemployment rate in the Pocono counties at 4.2%.

One thing Sacco said that has seen a large increase is the cost of housing. Since 2020, real estate prices have increased 19.4%, she said.

Chris Barrett, the president of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, also commented about real estate — specifically short-term rentals. Since 2020, stays in three or four bedroom, short-term rental houses have increased 80%. Overall, 50% of lodging stays in the Poconos are in a short-term rentals.

Each year, the Pocono region gets 30 million tourists, Barrett said. About of 11% of the tourists go to Carbon County.

“Jim Thorpe is the crown jewel in Carbon County tourism,” he said.

Tourism generates $5.1 billion annually in revenue for businesses in the Pocono region, and provides almost 64% of the labor income for the Pocono Mountains.

“It is a very strong economic indicator,” he said.

Without the money generated from the 3.7% hotel tax, in which the county and municipalities get 85% of the funds, Barrett said residents would pay $1,500 more in federal, state and local taxes. In the first and second quarters of 2024, Monroe County got $5 million in hotel tax funds; Pike got $625,629; Wayne received $334,297; and Carbon County got $779,846.

“Tourism has a strong economic benefit,” he said.

Barrett said the pandemic in 2020 impacted tourism, as well as many areas of the economy, but has since rebounded to 2019 levels. It is moderating some now with people taking more cruises, flying and traveling to luxury resorts. Many of the tourists to the Pocono area drive here from neighboring states.

“It makes it more competitive for us,” Barrett said.

One thing he does think will help tourism is the dropping of interest rates by the federal government. This should lead to more disposable income for people with incomes of $75,000 or less, which will mean more stays in moderately and lower priced hotels. These hotels have had lower lodging counts than luxury hotels, which have seen a large growth in recent years.

In addition to Sacco and Barrett, the event also featured presentations by Patrick Reilly, board chair of the Carbon Chamber and the president of Mauch Chunk Bank and Trust; Carbon County Commissioner Mike Sofranko, and Scott Vottero, the assistant district executive for Design with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Reilly spoke about the new staff at the Carbon Chamber, and the overhaul of the website that will be released in 2025.

Sofranko went over the highlights of work being done in Carbon County. In it, he said the commissioners established a County Demolition and Rehabilitation Fund and is pursuing $6 million in state grant funding to rehabilitate and replace bridges in the county. They also obtained a grant for virtual communications between the Carbon County Correctional Facility, courtrooms and the Public Defender’s Office, which will decrease trips to the courthouse and free up parking space. He said the commissioners also plan to continue to work on helping the unsheltered population, dive into increasing public transportation, work on open space management, help people recovering from drug and alcohol abuse, and make applying for the Carbon County Home Rehabilitation Program and Whole Repair Program easier.

“We’re here to work together,” he said.

And Vottero covered the various projects PennDOT has been involved in, such as the cantilever on Route 248 between Palmerton and Walnutport, the Interstate 80 Lehigh River bridge project with completion anticipated in June 2028, and the road improvement project on Route 443 in Lehighton that widened the road.