Domestic travelers spent approximately $16.9 billion in North Carolina in 2008, making tourism one of the state's biggest industries. Almost 60 percent of visitors traveling to North Carolina do so to visit friends and family or for shopping.
North Carolina has thousands of miles of roads and highways, including eight east-west Interstate routes and nine north-south routes. The state also has four international airports and several smaller regional airports, as well as several train systems, including a high-speed railway that goes from Washington, D.C., to Charlotte.
North Carolina has three distinct regions; the mountains, the coast and the Piedmont. A chain of the Appalachian Mountains runs through the state, which also includes the Great Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Piedmont foothills cover almost half of North Carolina. The coast has several beaches, dunes and wetlands.
North Carolina has 79,261 miles of state-maintained roads and 25,121 miles of non-state-maintained roads. The U.S. 64 comprises the longest route in the state, measuring at 611 miles and passing through 24 counties. The N.C. 400 makes up the smallest primary route at a distance of 0.93 miles.
