Posted on Nov 21, 2007 - 10:11 PM

Want to Open a Restaurant? Look No Further ...

It should come as no surprise that, for the fifth consecutive year, the Myrtle Beach area has landed the top spot in Restaurant Business Magazine's annual listing of "The Best Places to Open a Restaurant."

The magazine's nationwide Restaurant Growth Index includes Myrtle Beach among 17 other tourist-driven markets in the top 25. Here are the top 10, along with their respective RGI scores:

Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC (735)
Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, FL (430)
Flagstaff, AZ (358)
Ocean City, NJ (333)
Honolulu, HI (317)
Las Vegas-Paradise, NV (308)
Owensboro, KY (300)
Valdosta, GA (292)
Atlantic City, NJ (282)
Barnstable Town, MA (280)

One of Myrtle Beach's regional competitors for family vacation business, Orlando-Kissimmee, came in at No. 11 (279).

Restaurant Business is quick to point out that a primary reason Myrtle Beach's RGI is significantly higher than its closest competitor on the list is the fact that, compared to other metropolitan areas nationwide, the Grand Strand is "a very small market with a very big influx of outsiders." But that big influx (14 million annual visitors) brings a big appetite, and local restaurant owners are obviously capitalizing.

And while numbers don't necessarily tell the whole story, they don't lie, either. More than the RGI score itself, consider these figures when contemplating a new restaurant venture here:

Myrtle Beach's annual restaurant revenue ($950.1 million) exceeds that of three entire states - Vermont ($853.1 million), Wyoming ($845.8 million) and North Dakota ($801.6 million).
Myrtle Beach's annual sales-per-restaurant average ($860,663) exceeds the national average by more than 22 percent; the South Carolina state average by more than 27 percent; and the average of all but four states (Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona and Virginia) and the District of Columbia.
With visitors far exceeding population, it's easy to discount the sales-per-capita figures. But what can't be ignored is the fact that 14 million visitors means an average restaurant sales-per-visitor figure of almost $68.

Click here to check out the full rankings, or here to see how Myrtle Beach stacks up against the regional market.