The area has received attention from a number of national travel sites and publications, according to the Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Those highlights included:

• About.com’s “Best Family Beach Vacations in the Southeast” includes Carolina Beach and Kure Beach.
• The N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher made TripAdvisor.com’s list
of “Top 25 US Aquariums.”
• While celebrating 50 years as a family-owned beach resort in 2014, the Blockade Runner Beach Resort
in Wrightsville Beach made USAToday.com’s 10 Best list, as one of the “Best Beach Resort Kid’s Clubs.”  
• Outside magazine also included the Blockade Runner in its roundup of “10 Best Surf Lodges in North America.” The magazine lauded Wrightsville Beach for its “unusually rabid surf culture owing to its consistent swells, clear water, and surprisingly high-profile contingent of surfers …”
• Garden and Gun magazine’s “Guide to Best Southern Burgers” included Dockside restaurant on Airlie Road. 
• Men’s Journal mentioned Wrightsville Beach in its “2014 Best Summer Vacation Destinations” roundup, calling it “North Carolina’s most naturally gifted watersport hub, an undomesticated destination for canoeists, kayakers, and surfers …”
• Movoto.com’s popular blog ranked Wilmington No. 2 in its list
of “Top Ten Most Exciting Places in North Carolina.” According to Movoto: “This port city has it all: arts and entertainment, a young
population, nightlife, music, tons of restaurants, and an overall active lifestyle.”
• And Facilities & Destinations 2014 Superbook featured the Wilmington Convention Center as Prime Site Award of Excellence winner.