New Jersey is forecast to regain 75% of pandemic-related losses in spending by visitors to the state this year, and visitor numbers are expected to be back to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. A rebound can’t come quickly enough for the travel and tourism industry, which was pummeled by the pandemic, but the latest data indicates a rebound is well underway.

According to a study released last week by the New Jersey Division of Travel & Tourism, the Garden State attracted 96.6 million visitors in 2021, representing a 14% increase over 2020, though 19% below the record-breaking total in 2019. A press release accompanying the new data makes clear the challenges for the industry of operating amid the ever-changing circumstances of the pandemic: “Despite the additional 12 million visitors, visitation recovery was uneven, impacted by the delta and omicron COVID-19 variants during fall and winter travel.”

Visitors spent $37.3 billion here last year, with per-visitor spending for both overnight and day visitors back to near pre-pandemic levels at $386 per trip. Tourism supported 430,000-plus jobs (one-in-12) in the state in 2021 and accounted for nearly $20 billion in gross domestic product, representing 2.8% of the state’s economy.

The data comes from the “2021 Economic Impact of Tourism in New Jersey” study, prepared by Tourism Economics.