Hilton Head Island, often referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and 95 miles (153 km) southwest of Charleston. The island is named after Captain William Hilton, who in 1663 identified a headland near the entrance to Port Royal Sound, which mapmakers named "Hilton's Headland." The island features 12 miles (19 km) of beachfront on the Atlantic Ocean and is a popular vacation destination. In 2004, an estimated 2.25 million visitors infused more than $1.5 billion into the local economy. The year-round population was 37,661 at the 2020 census, although during the peak of summer vacation season the population can swell to 150,000. Hilton Head Island is the largest city within the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 215,908 in 2020.
Kiawah is a sea island, or barrier island, on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Charleston in Charleston County, South Carolina, it is primarily a private beach and golf resort. It is home to the Kiawah Island Golf Resort, with spacious villas, beaches, large and acclaimed golf courses, and other attractions. As of the 2010 census, Kiawah Island's population was 1,626, up from 1,163 at the 2000 census. The island is part of the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville metropolitan area. Alternative spellings and variants of the name itself include "Kiawa", "Kittiwar", and "Kittiwah". Census Tract 21.04, located on the island, has a per capita income of $168,369, the highest in South Carolina.
Tourism in Puerto Rico attracts millions of visitors each year, with more than 5.1 million passengers arriving at the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in 2022, the main point of arrival into the island of Puerto Rico. With a $8.9 billion revenue in 2022, tourism has been a very important source of revenue for Puerto Rico for a number of decades given its favorable warm climate, beach destinations and its diversity of natural wonders, cultural and historical sites, festivals, concerts and sporting events. As Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, U.S. citizens do not need a passport to enter Puerto Rico, and the ease of travel attracts many tourists from the mainland U.S. each year.
The Caribe Hilton is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and is owned by Park Hotels & Resorts and managed by Hilton Worldwide.
Palmas del Mar is a beach resort community consisting of a country club, golf courses, tennis, a beach club, residences and a hotel. It is located in the municipality of Humacao, Puerto Rico, on the southeast corner of the island.
The Sea Islands are a chain of over a hundred tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States, between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns rivers along South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The largest is Johns Island, South Carolina. Sapelo Island is home to the Gullah people and all islands are acutely threatened by sea level rise due to climate change.
St. George Island is an island and Census-designated place (CDP) off the Florida Panhandle in the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is in Franklin County, Florida, United States.
Guayama, officially the Autonomous Municipality of Guayama, is a city and municipality on the Caribbean coast of Puerto Rico. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 36,614. It is the center of the Guayama metropolitan area with a population of 68,442 in 2020.
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico resulted in the 19th century from widespread economic and political changes in Europe that made life difficult for the peasant and agricultural classes in Corsica and other territories. The Second Industrial Revolution drew more people into urban areas for work, widespread crop failure resulted from long periods of drought, and crop diseases, and political discontent rose. In the early nineteenth century, Spain lost most of its possessions in the so-called "New World" as its colonies won independence. It feared rebellion in its last two Caribbean colonies: Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Spanish Crown had issued the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 which fostered and encouraged the immigration of European Catholics, even if not of Spanish origin, to its Caribbean colonies.
Harbour Town Golf Links is a public golf course in the eastern United States, located in South Carolina in Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County. Since 1969, it has hosted the RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour, usually in mid-April, the week after The Masters.
A resort town, resort city or resort destination is an urban area where tourism or vacationing is the primary component of the local culture and economy. A typical resort town has one or more actual resorts in the surrounding area. Sometimes the term resort town is used simply for a locale popular among tourists. One task force in British Columbia used the definition of an incorporated or unincorporated contiguous area where the ratio of transient rooms, measured in bed units, is greater than 60% of the permanent population.
The Sea Pines Resort or Sea Pines is located in Sea Pines Plantation, a 5,200-acre private residential gated community located on the southern tip of the island which comprises the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Sea Pines is home to four golf courses, including Harbour Town Golf Links, Atlantic Dunes by Davis Love III,, the Heron Point golf course and the Sea Pines Country Club Course. The RBC Heritage is a PGA Tour event held annually in April at the Harbour Town course.
Tourism is one of the Caribbean's major economic sectors, with 25 million visitors contributing $49 billion towards the area's gross domestic product in 2013, which represented 14% of its total GDP. It is often described as, "the most tourism-dependent region in the world".
The Harbour Town Lighthouse is a lighthouse at the Harbour Town Marina at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was privately built and is a private aid to navigation. Although initially ridiculed by local residents during the planning and construction phases, the lighthouse became instantly popular and is today the most recognizable symbol of Hilton Head Island and Sea Pines Resort. The annually televised The Heritage golf tournament has helped increase the lighthouse's fame to millions of golf fans worldwide, and the 18th hole at the Harbour Town Golf Links has become one of the most popular and recognizable finishing holes in golf.
Omni Amelia Island Resort is a luxury resort community located on Amelia Island, Florida, the westernmost barrier island on the Atlantic Ocean in the U.S. The resort's tennis facility hosted the Bausch & Lomb Championships, a major Women's Tennis Association tournament, for 20 years. The 402-room hotel on the property is now part of Omni Hotels & Resorts.
Hilton Head white-tailed deer are a subspecies of white-tailed deer indigenous to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. The deer live in a mainly suburban environment and have developed home range areas on the island.
Peter Stevenson Rummell is an American real estate entrepreneur, investor and businessman. He has held senior positions at several prominent companies, heading two branches of The Walt Disney Company and serving as CEO of the St. Joe Company. Disney's planned community of Celebration, Florida was his brainchild. He is a founding board member and the primary financial backer of One Spark, a crowdfunding festival in Jacksonville, Florida.
Charles Elbert Fraser was an American real estate developer whose vision helped transform South Carolina's Hilton Head Island from a sparsely populated sea island into a world-class resort. He graduated from the University of Georgia and Yale Law School. Through his company, Sea Pines Company, he developed Sea Pines Plantation, Amelia Island Plantation, River Hills Plantation, and Kiawah Island Resort, among several other master planned communities. Fraser died in 2002 at the age of 73 in a boat explosion in the Turks and Caicos Islands while on a consulting project.
Joseph Bacon Fraser commanded the 48th Armored Division of Georgia and Florida Army National Guard. His military career spanned from World War I to the Korean War before retiring a lieutenant general in 1956. He was also a former mayor of Hinesville, a timber baron, and one of the first resort developers of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, which his son, Charles E. Fraser, developed into Sea Pines Plantation.
Joseph Bacon Fraser Jr. was one of the founders of the Sea Pines Company, along with his brother Charles E. Fraser and father General Joseph B. Fraser who first developed Hilton Head Island into a popular destination. The Fraser Brother's pioneered many urban planning principals study and copied through the southeastern United States. He was inducted into the Home Builders Association of South Carolina Hall of fame in 2000. His philanthropic work includes past chairman of the Heritage Classic Foundation, which raises money for the non-profit PGA Heritage Classic Tournament and distributes the proceeds to local and state charities. The field house for Hilton Head Preparatory School is named in honor of him.
