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Image Source: Myrtle Beach Sports Center
Sure, South Carolina’s beaches are beautiful, but one of the most impactful economic stories in the state right now involves a 12-year-old in cleats, a family of four checking into a hotel on a Friday afternoon, and a weekend tournament bracket that pumps millions into local economies most people couldn’t find on a map.
Image Source: Myrtle Beach Sports Center
South Carolina’s tourism industry generated a record $31 billion in total economic impact in 2025, supports one in 10 jobs statewide, and produces nearly $2 billion annually in state and local taxes, according to the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. Those are staggering numbers.
But the most intriguing part of that story is that it’s happening on soccer pitches in the Pee Dee, on BMX tracks along the Catawba River, and inside a 170,000-square-foot sports center in downtown Rock Hill.
Three South Carolina cities — Florence, Greenville, and Rock Hill — are rewriting the playbook on what sports tourism looks like when midsize communities go all in. Each started from a different place. Each made a different bet. All three are winning.
In fact, anywhere in the United States where pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars share space presents risks. Pedestrian safety isn’t a simple problem to solve — something Councilman Anderson learned recently.
Despite his collaboration with the Dover Police Department, a pedestrian safety proposal he presented to the council recently failed to pass. Part of the plan included creating a legal framework to keep people from standing too long in roadway medians. Some members of the community interpreted it as a means of criminalizing homelessness, and the majority of the council voted against the measure.
“We’ll bring it back,” he said. “It’s an important issue, because people are getting hurt.”
Work Collaboratively to Find Solutions
A secret to better pedestrian safety, like most things in government, is collaboration. In Philadelphia, the Vision Zero strategy includes the creation of a task force consisting of elected officials and city department heads. They meet quarterly and offer direction to five subcommittees that implement the specific elements of the work.
Collaboration is important for funding, too. The city highlights partnerships when applying for state and federal grant opportunities, including revenue from speed camera tickets funneled through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Image Source: Myrtle Beach Sports Center
Councilman Anderson said they’ve had to fund many traffic-calming improvements through the general coffers. In past years, they received more than $1 million in state grants, he said.
Investments in new infrastructure, as well as new proposals for speed reductions, are easier with community approval, Mr. Gorini said. He recommends that community leaders looking to implement a Vision Zero strategy start by listening to residents and prioritizing the most dangerous areas.
“Community input was critical,” he explained. “We had a 12-month outreach process with 80 community groups in total to dig into the types of tactics and strategies that the city could use in the next five years,” he said. “We also did ground truthing with a market research study with 2,000 Philadelphia residents polled.”
While people recognize the problem of pedestrian safety concerns, it still requires a focused effort from many government agencies and support from elected officials to keep pedestrians safe.
“Our goal is to eliminate serious deaths by 2050,” Mr. Gorini said. “We want to get there even faster.”
