The University of North Carolina Wilmington and Coastal Carolina University are joining together to co-host a tourism and economic growth summit and to discuss the “Turbo-Tourist” effect.

The summit will take place tomorrow, March 9 from 8 a.m. to noon in the Burney Center on the UNCW campus. The conference is $35 for an individual registration or $240 for a table of eight. Breakfast is included in registration fee. For more information or to register online, go to www.csb.uncw.edu/cbes. According to a release, on-site registration will be available day of the event.

Speakers include UNCW professor of economics Woody Hall and Coastal Carolina University research economist Don Schunk. Keynote speaker Patrick Mason, co-founder of the Center for Carolina Living, will share how tourism, in-migration and the “Turbo Tourist” are interlinked.

The annual impact of newcomers to the Carolinas approaches $30 billion, creating 39,000 housing transactions and producing at least 33,000 new jobs across the Carolinas each year, making it a leading edge economic sector, Mason said in a press release.

“Tourism is the birth-mother of another huge Carolina economic engine called the in-migration industry,” said Mason in a press release. “We’ve branded the travel segment estimated to be 6 million visitors exploring the Carolinas with investment and relocation motivations ‘Turbo-Tourists.’”

A panel of local tourism experts will also examine the current state of tourism in southeastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina.