TheDigitel
From August 2010 to August 2011, hotels in Beaufort saw 3.3% more rooms filled.

(First reporting September 27, updates at the bottom.)

While things have been less than stellar in the overall economy front, the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce is boasting of some good tourism stats locally.

Here some feel good news in bullet form:

- The visitor center in the Historic Arsenal in downtown Beaufort has seen a 15% increase in visitor traffic, year-to-date.   

- A 3.3% increase in hotel occupancy this August over last August.

- The Beaufort visitor information website has seen a 24% increase from June to August this year.

It's a smattering to be sure, but we'll take what good news we can get.

Update October 17: The Island Packet has followed up on the numbers with some anecdotal quotes to humanize the data; take a read here.

• Keep up with local tourism news on our topic page.