Every so often, the rest of the country gets a glimpse of what Grand Strand locals wake up to every morning. Sometimes it’s a postcard shot in a magazine spread. Sometimes it’s a puzzle board on a game show. And on the afternoon of June 9, it was Kelly Clarkson’s studio audience watching the SkyWheel turn against a Carolina-blue sky — sixty miles of coastline compressed into a few minutes of national daytime television.

Myrtle Beach landed a coveted feature on The Kelly Clarkson Show this summer, courtesy of nationally recognized travel expert Emily Kaufman — better known to millions of viewers as The Travel Mom. The segment, which aired June 9 as the finale of her South Carolina coastal road trip series, spotlighted the destination’s family-friendly attractions, oceanfront atmosphere, and famous affordability to an audience of potential travelers from coast to coast.

And Kaufman didn’t just talk about the beach — she brought it into the studio. After wrapping her road trip on the Grand Strand, she surprised two lucky audience members with a $10,000 Myrtle Beach getaway, courtesy of the segment’s sponsor, Take 5. Somewhere out there, two very happy families are packing beach bags right now.

Here’s what the feature covered, why placements like this one keep the Grand Strand in the national spotlight, and how to see everything the cameras captured for yourself — with a quieter home base just up the coast.

What Aired on June 9: The Travel Mom’s South Carolina Road Trip

The Myrtle Beach feature came as the closing chapter of a South Carolina coastal road trip series Kaufman produced for the show — a journey that wound its way along the Palmetto State’s shoreline before finishing where so many family road trips do: on the Grand Strand. The format suited the destination perfectly. Myrtle Beach has always been, at heart, a road trip town — the place families from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and half of the eastern seaboard have been steering toward for generations, coolers packed and radio on.

Visit Myrtle Beach, the area’s destination marketing organization, supported the production with coordination, local logistics, and video assets that helped bring the region to life on screen — the kind of behind-the-scenes teamwork that turns a few minutes of airtime into a genuine showcase.

The studio moment sealed it. Kaufman returned from the road to Kelly Clarkson’s stage and handed two audience members a $10,000 Myrtle Beach vacation, turning a travel segment into the kind of feel-good giveaway daytime television does best — and putting the words “Myrtle Beach” on the lips of everyone watching at home.

Who Is The Travel Mom?

If you’ve watched morning or daytime television at any point in the last three decades, you’ve likely met Emily Kaufman. A pioneer of the family travel beat, she has spent roughly thirty years helping households plan accessible, affordable, memorable vacations — appearing regularly on Good Morning America, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CBS Mornings, and CNN, and currently serving as the travel correspondent for The Kelly Clarkson Show.

That résumé matters for a simple reason: trust. When The Travel Mom tells a national audience that a destination delivers for families — real value, real variety, something for the grandparents and the toddlers alike — travelers listen. It’s third-party validation from one of the most familiar voices in family travel, and Myrtle Beach earned the nod.

Her verdict echoed what generations of returning visitors already know. The Grand Strand’s combination of wide public beaches, attraction-packed entertainment districts, and vacation costs that don’t require a second mortgage has kept it among America’s most visited beach destinations year after year.

What the Feature Showcased

The segment leaned into the icons — the places that define the Myrtle Beach skyline and fill a family’s first-day itinerary.

The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk

The 1.2-mile oceanfront promenade is the destination’s front porch — a stroll past arcades, souvenir shops, ice cream windows, and the sound of waves that never quite leaves the background. It’s the Myrtle Beach that lives in family photo albums, and it photographs just as well for television.

The SkyWheel

Rising nearly 200 feet above the Boardwalk, the SkyWheel is the coast’s unmistakable landmark — climate-controlled glass gondolas turning slowly over the Atlantic, with views that stretch up and down the Strand. When a TV producer needs one shot that says “Myrtle Beach,” this is the one they reach for.

Broadway at the Beach

The sprawling entertainment complex around Lake Broadway packs dining, shopping, nightlife, and attractions into one walkable district — the rare place where a family of four with four different opinions can all get their way in a single evening.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Myrtle Beach

Anchoring Broadway at the Beach, Ripley’s Aquarium sends visitors along a moving glidepath through an underwater tunnel while sharks and rays sail overhead — reliably the moment when even the teenagers put their phones down. It’s a staple of rainy-day plans and hot-afternoon escapes alike, and a natural pick for a family-focused travel feature.

Beyond the marquee names, the segment captured the thing that’s harder to put in a listicle: the oceanfront atmosphere itself. The wide sand, the pier silhouettes, the particular gold of a Grand Strand evening — the reasons people don’t just visit once.

A Big Year for Myrtle Beach on National Television

The Kelly Clarkson Show feature didn’t arrive in a vacuum. Just a month earlier, Wheel of Fortune devoted an entire week of programming to the destination — Myrtle Beach Family Week, which aired May 4–8, 2026, with family teams competing for prizes that included Myrtle Beach trips, plus a companion sweepstakes that sent five winning families on five-night Grand Strand vacations.

There’s a lovely bit of hometown poetry in that one: Wheel of Fortune’s own Vanna White grew up right here in North Myrtle Beach, and the giveaway invited viewers to come explore her hometown. For a game show watched by millions every weeknight, that’s a full week of the Grand Strand glowing on America’s living room screens.

Put the year’s placements side by side and the pattern is clear:

Two nationally syndicated shows, back to back, both choosing the same stretch of South Carolina coastline as their family-vacation shorthand. In a tourism marketplace where every beach town in America is competing for attention, that’s not luck — it’s a destination whose story keeps proving easy to tell.

Why National TV Coverage Matters for Your Vacation

It’s fair to ask what a talk show segment has to do with your beach week. More than you’d think, actually — and mostly in good ways.

National features introduce the destination to first-time travelers, sure. But they also work on everyone who’s been here before — the family that came in 2019 and keeps meaning to come back, the couple who honeymooned here and wonders if the kids would love it. A trusted voice like The Travel Mom saying “this place delivers” is often the nudge that turns someday into this summer. That awareness ripples outward to the hotels, attractions, restaurants, and small businesses that make up the Grand Strand’s tourism economy — the same ecosystem that keeps the area’s restaurant scene deep, its attractions fresh, and its calendar full.

For visitors, the practical takeaway is timing. Exposure like this tends to show up in demand, especially for summer and early fall. The families who watched that June 9 segment and started planning are booking now — which makes this a smart moment to lock in your own dates rather than waiting for the shoulder-season scramble. Our Myrtle Beach events calendar is a good place to pick your week; the full menu of things to do in Myrtle Beach will fill it.

Seeing the TV-Famous Spots from North Myrtle Beach

Here’s the local’s secret the cameras rarely linger on: you don’t have to stay in the middle of the spotlight to enjoy it. North Myrtle Beach sits about fifteen miles up the coast from the Boardwalk and SkyWheel — close enough for an easy evening outing, far enough that you come home to a quieter stretch of sand, a slower pace, and the kind of beach where your morning coffee comes with more pelicans than people.

Every one of the featured attractions is a straightforward drive down Highway 17 or the Highway 31 bypass. Spend an afternoon at Ripley’s Aquarium and Broadway at the Beach, ride the SkyWheel at dusk when the coast lights up beneath you, walk the Boardwalk with ice cream in hand — then point the car north and trade the bright lights for the sound of the surf outside your window.

Each of North Myrtle Beach’s four sections makes a fine base camp for it. Cherry Grove Beach offers its fishing pier and famously calm, family-friendly waters at the north end. Ocean Drive brings its own slice of television-worthy Americana — Main Street, the shag clubs, and beach music history (this is Vanna White’s hometown turf, after all). Crescent Beach and Windy Hill sit closest to the Myrtle Beach attractions, shaving minutes off the drive to Broadway at the Beach while keeping the wide, relaxed sand that defines the north end of the Strand.

Frequently Asked Questions

See What the Cameras Saw — Then Stay Where the Locals Would

Millions of viewers just discovered what you may already suspect: the Grand Strand delivers a family beach vacation that’s hard to beat. The next move is making it yours. Thomas Beach Vacations offers oceanfront home rentals with room for the whole crew and oceanfront condos perfect for smaller families — across all four North Myrtle Beach sections, each an easy drive from the Boardwalk, SkyWheel, and Broadway at the Beach, and each with the ocean waiting right outside your door. Browse availability at www.northmyrtlebeachvacations.com or call our local team at (843) 273-3001 — and turn the vacation everyone saw on TV into the one your family actually takes.

Sources: Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce / Visit Myrtle Beach announcement; The Kelly Clarkson Show (NBC, aired June 9, 2026); Wheel of Fortune Myrtle Beach Family Week official promotion (May 2026).

There’s a certain sound that belongs to Myrtle Beach in March. It starts in the distance — a low rumble that rolls in from Highway 17 like distant thunder, except the sky is clear and the sea air smells like salt and motor oil and something good. It’s the sound of American steel headed south, chrome catching the late-winter sun, engines tuned the way they don’t build them anymore. It’s the Run to the Sun Car and Truck Show, and it’s been making that sound for 37 years.

If you’ve never seen the Run to the Sun in person, it’s difficult to describe the scale of it. Over 3,500 pre-1989 vehicles spread across 56 acres of the Grand Strand. Muscle cars. Vintage pickups. Resto-mods that took somebody twenty years and a second mortgage to finish just right. Spectators shoulder-to-shoulder on a warm March morning, leaning in to read the placards, asking questions, trading stories. The largest independent classic car show on the East Coast, and it comes to Myrtle Beach every spring like a reunion between old friends.

The 37th annual show runs March 19–21, 2026, at the Old Myrtle Square Mall. Whether you’re registering a vehicle, buying a spectator ticket, or just planning a March beach trip and looking for something extraordinary to fill a Saturday, this is one of those events that reminds you why people keep coming back to the Grand Strand year after year. It isn’t just a car show. It’s a community gathering with chrome and horsepower and a whole lot of heart.

What Is the Run to the Sun Car Show?

Run to the Sun started in 1988 as a grassroots gathering of classic car lovers who saw the Grand Strand for what it is: a wide-open stretch of coastal South Carolina that welcomes people, warmth, and a good time in equal measure. What began as a modest local event has grown — without losing its independent spirit — into one of the most respected classic car shows on the eastern seaboard.

The show is independently owned and managed by Michael Leaventon, who has kept the event rooted in its original values: a genuine celebration of pre-1989 automobiles, a commitment to giving back to the community, and a crowd-friendly atmosphere where car lovers from across the country feel at home. Cars come from over 28 states. That’s not a marketing statistic — that’s a testament to what Leaventon and his team have built over nearly four decades.

What makes Run to the Sun stand apart from larger, corporate-sponsored car shows is the people. The judging is personal. Staff, partners, and sponsors personally present winner plaques. The vendors are mostly regional. The charities are local. The whole thing feels like something that belongs to the Grand Strand, even when attendees are rolling in from Ohio or Pennsylvania or Tennessee with a trailer full of polished metal and a three-day weekend to enjoy.

2026 Dates, Location & What to Expect

The 37th annual Run to the Sun Car and Truck Show takes place March 19–21, 2026, at the Old Myrtle Square Mall in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The site spans 56 acres — enough room for 3,500 vehicles, 150 vendors, and upward of 10,000 spectators across three days.

March is one of the best times to be on the Grand Strand. The tourist crowds of summer haven’t arrived yet, so parking is manageable, restaurants have open tables, and the beach is peaceful in the mornings before the car show kicks off. Daytime temperatures in mid-March typically range from the low 50s to the low 70s — cool enough to walk comfortably in the sun, warm enough to enjoy being outside all day without much effort.

The Old Myrtle Square Mall property sits in a central location in Myrtle Beach, easily accessible from Highway 17 and close to a range of restaurants, shops, and entertainment options along the strip. If you’re driving in a show vehicle, the flat, open lot makes for easy maneuvering and display. If you’re arriving as a spectator, you’ll want comfortable shoes — 56 acres covers a lot of ground, and there’s plenty worth walking.

For full event schedules, vehicle registration details, and spectator ticket purchases, the official site is the best resource: runtothesuncarshow.com.

The Cars: 3,500 Classics on 56 Acres

The cut-off year is 1989 — anything pre-1990 is eligible — and the variety that rule produces is remarkable. Walk the show floor on a Saturday morning and you’ll move from a row of perfectly preserved 1950s Chevrolets to a cluster of late-1960s muscle cars to a collection of first-generation Broncos and Blazers with more personality than most of what rolls off assembly lines today.

Run to the Sun draws vehicles from over 28 states, which means you’re not just looking at local restorations. You’re seeing the best work from garages across the Mid-Atlantic, the Deep South, the Midwest, and New England — owners who hauled their pride and joy down to the beach specifically because this show has that kind of reputation. Decades of careful bodywork. Original engine bays that look better than the day the car left the factory. Custom builds that blend eras and styles into something wholly original.

The show includes a formal judging process, with winner plaques presented personally by staff, partners, and sponsors. Categories cover everything from stock restorations to radical customs, and the competition is taken seriously by everyone involved. But even if you’re just a spectator with a passing appreciation for old cars, the sheer density of beautiful machines in one place is something you don’t forget easily.

What Kinds of Vehicles Are Typically Featured?

Expect a broad mix: classic American muscle (Camaros, Mustangs, GTOs, Chargers), vintage pickups and trucks, pre-war rarities when they appear, custom hot rods, lowriders, and surf-ready woodies. European and Japanese classics occasionally make appearances in their own right. The pre-1989 rule keeps the focus on vehicles with genuine history, and the quality of what’s on display reflects the dedication of owners who take the craft seriously.

Vendors, Awards & Entertainment

With 150 vendors on-site, the Run to the Sun isn’t just a car show — it’s a market, a gathering spot, and a full weekend of activity. Vendors typically offer automotive parts and accessories, restoration supplies, memorabilia, vintage signage, apparel, and a range of food and refreshment options to keep you going through a full day of walking. The vendor section draws its own crowd of enthusiasts looking for hard-to-find parts or just a good deal on something they didn’t know they needed until they saw it.

A charity silent auction is held in partnership with the National MS Society, with 100% of proceeds going directly to the society. The auction items vary year to year but typically include automotive memorabilia, experiences, and locally sourced goods. It’s worth making a lap through the auction area early — popular items get competitive quickly.

There’s also a 50/50 raffle hosted by McLeod Children’s Hospital, giving attendees another way to support a worthy cause while putting a little skin in the game. The combination of competition, community giving, and casual weekend energy is what separates this show from a simple parking lot display.

Winner plaques are presented personally by show staff and sponsors — a touch that keeps the recognition feeling genuine rather than ceremonial. If you’re showing a vehicle, this is the kind of event where winning actually means something, because the people handing you that plaque know what went into the build.

Giving Back: Charities & Community Impact

In 37 years, Run to the Sun has donated more than $2.3 million to local and national charitable organizations — including over $175,000 in the last four years alone. That’s not background noise. That’s a meaningful part of what this event is. The car show has become one of the Grand Strand’s most significant annual charitable fundraising events, and the community it supports is broad and deep.

The 2026 beneficiaries include:

• National Multiple Sclerosis Society — silent auction proceeds
• Children’s Miracle Network at McLeod Children’s Hospital — 50/50 raffle proceeds
• Horry County Sheriff’s Department Benevolent Fund
• Grand Strand Miracle League
• Florence Miracle League
• Carolina Forest High School NJROTC Booster Club
• Boys and Girls Club of Grand Strand

The Boys and Girls Club of Grand Strand, the Miracle League programs that give children with disabilities the chance to play baseball, the NJROTC cadets at Carolina Forest — these are local organizations doing real work in Horry County. When you buy a spectator ticket or register a vehicle, you’re contributing to all of that. The show owner has been deliberate about keeping this connection alive for 37 years, and it shows in the loyalty the event commands from participants who return every single spring.

Where to Stay for the Run to the Sun Car Show

If you’re driving in for the weekend — whether you’re trailering a show car or just coming to spectate — the Grand Strand gives you options at every price point and preference level. But for visitors who want the full coastal experience alongside the car show, North Myrtle Beach is a particularly appealing base.

North Myrtle Beach sits roughly 15 miles north of the show venue, easily accessible on Highway 17. It’s a separate city from Myrtle Beach — quieter, with a more residential beach-town character — and it offers everything you need for a comfortable long weekend: easy beach access, good restaurants, and the kind of laid-back atmosphere that makes March on the coast feel like a genuine getaway rather than just a drive-in, drive-out event trip.

What’s Nearby the Show Venue?

Within walking or short driving distance of the Old Myrtle Square Mall, you’ll find a full range of Grand Strand dining and entertainment. Collector’s Café on Highway 17 Bypass offers a sophisticated dining experience in a setting that would feel right at home among car show enthusiasts — the walls are covered in original artwork and the food matches the ambition. For something more casual after a long day on your feet, River City Café on Highway 17 is a Myrtle Beach institution known for enormous burgers and a relaxed atmosphere. Down toward the Boardwalk, the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and Promenade gives you a waterfront walk and easy access to coastal dining.

If the car show is just one part of a longer beach vacation — and honestly, why not make it that — North Myrtle Beach vacation rentals put you close enough to enjoy the show each day and far enough from the main tourist corridor to actually decompress at night. March rates are typically far more reasonable than peak summer pricing, and the weather is genuinely pleasant. It’s one of the better-kept secrets of Grand Strand travel planning.

For more ideas on how to spend your time on the beach this spring, check out our guide to things to do in Myrtle Beach and our roundup of Myrtle Beach events happening throughout the season.

More Things to Do Around Myrtle Beach in March

The Run to the Sun takes up most of a Saturday, but three days on the Grand Strand gives you time for more. March is underrated as a travel month here — the ocean is still too cool for a long swim, but the beach itself is beautiful for walks, and the town operates at a pace that feels like breathing room compared to July.

Broadway at the Beach

Broadway at the Beach, just a few miles from the show venue, is Myrtle Beach’s largest entertainment complex — restaurants, shops, miniature golf, and attractions centered around a 23-acre lake. In March it’s pleasantly uncrowded, and the waterfront dining options are worth an evening. Restaurants like Margaritaville and Dave & Buster’s are right on the complex if you’re looking for something casual and lively after the show.

Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and SkyWheel

The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk stretches 1.2 miles along the oceanfront and is one of the few boardwalks in the country that still feels genuine rather than manufactured. The SkyWheel at its northern end gives you a bird’s-eye view of the coastline that puts the whole Grand Strand in perspective — from up there, you can almost trace the route the car show participants took coming into town. Rides are available year-round and the lines in March are practically nonexistent.

Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach

If you’re staying in North Myrtle Beach, Barefoot Landing is a waterfront shopping and dining complex on the Intracoastal Waterway that’s worth a slow evening. The Alabama Theatre hosts live entertainment, and the surrounding walkways and docks have a genuinely pleasant low-key atmosphere that makes it easy to linger over a meal. It’s a nice counterpoint to the energy of the car show — quieter, more scenic, unhurried.

The Beach Itself

It seems obvious, but it’s worth saying: March mornings on the Grand Strand are among the most peaceful moments the coast offers. The light is low and golden before 9 a.m., the water is steel blue and cold and honest, and the beach belongs almost entirely to whoever shows up with coffee and a willingness to walk. After a full day of 3,500 cars and 10,000 people, a morning beach walk has a way of resetting everything.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re planning to be on the Grand Strand for the Run to the Sun Car Show — or if the show just reminded you that a March beach trip is long overdue — Thomas Beach Vacations can help you find exactly the right place to stay. The team knows North Myrtle Beach the way locals do, and the vacation rental options range from cozy off-season retreats to properties with enough room to bring the whole crew. Give them a call at (866) 249-2100 or browse available properties at northmyrtlebeachvacations.com. A great car show deserves a great weekend to go with it.

Lights, Camera, Grand Strand: Myrtle Beach Is Becoming a Film Industry Hub

There has always been something cinematic about the Grand Strand. The way morning light slips sideways across the Atlantic and catches the lip of a wave. The Spanish moss hanging still and silver over old plantation oaks. The way Ocean Boulevard in North Myrtle Beach hums on a summer Friday night with neon and laughter and the smell of salt and sunscreen. People have been coming here for generations to feel something — and it turns out that what makes a place feel worth visiting also makes it worth filming.

With a film currently in production along the Grand Strand, the Myrtle Beach area is drawing attention from an industry that tends to be selective about where it sets up its equipment. And this is not a one-time thing. Visit Myrtle Beach — the area’s official tourism marketing organization — is actively working to position the coastal region as a bona fide destination for film and television production. The conversations happening right now between producers, local officials, and tourism leaders could reshape how the world first encounters this stretch of South Carolina coastline.

For visitors planning a trip to Myrtle Beach or North Myrtle Beach, this development is worth paying attention to. A rising film profile changes a destination — it brings new visitors, new energy, and a kind of cultural credibility that no marketing campaign can manufacture. Here is what is happening, why it matters, and what it might mean the next time you look out at the ocean from a North Myrtle Beach vacation rental balcony.

A Coastline Worth Putting on Camera

The Grand Strand is sixty miles of coastline, but that phrase alone doesn’t capture what makes it visually remarkable. Within a short drive of Myrtle Beach’s famous oceanfront, a film crew can find settings that most coastal destinations simply cannot offer. There are wide, windswept beaches where the horizon seems to stretch past the edge of the frame. There is the Intracoastal Waterway threading through marshland that turns gold at dusk. There are waterfront communities in North Myrtle Beach — Cherry Grove, Windy Hill, Crescent Beach — where fishing boats bob beside vacation homes and the local rhythm of life has not been entirely consumed by tourism.

Move inland and the landscape shifts again. Working farms dot Horry County. Antebellum plantation properties with their broad verandas and live oak canopies offer a visual contrast to the coast that is striking on screen. The rice fields of the Georgetown area, just south of Myrtle Beach, carry a weight of history that few settings in the American South can match. All of this — beach, waterway, farmland, antebellum architecture — sits within 15 to 20 minutes of each other. For a production manager trying to minimize company moves between locations, that kind of geographic density is extremely valuable.

Why Producers Are Choosing the Grand Strand

Film production is a logistical enterprise as much as a creative one. A location that looks beautiful in a photo may become impractical the moment you try to park three grip trucks, source a catering operation that can feed eighty people twice a day, and find hotel rooms for a cast and crew on short notice. The Grand Strand handles all of those demands with relative ease — which is one of the core reasons producers are beginning to look seriously at the area.

The accommodation infrastructure here is enormous. The Myrtle Beach area has tens of thousands of hotel rooms, vacation rentals, and resort properties. North Myrtle Beach vacation rentals through Thomas Beach Vacations offer extended-stay options ranging from oceanfront condos to large beach houses that can accommodate multiple crew members under one roof — the kind of flexible lodging a production company on a multi-week shoot genuinely needs. That scale of inventory, outside of peak summer season, means a production crew is not competing with a convention and a family reunion for the same rooms.

The restaurants and vendors along the Grand Strand round out the picture. A production crew of fifty-plus people eating and spending daily at local establishments like Nacho Hippo, Sea Captain’s House, or Filet’s Restaurant in North Myrtle Beach adds up quickly. The area has the dining depth and retail variety to sustain that kind of prolonged economic engagement without strain.

How Visit Myrtle Beach Supports Film Productions

Landing a film production is not purely a matter of a location looking good on a scout. There is a bureaucratic reality to every shoot — permits, insurance requirements, coordination with local government, and the constant logistical scramble that any large traveling operation requires. Visit Myrtle Beach has positioned itself as the connector between incoming productions and the local resources that make a shoot feasible.

That means helping production crews navigate the permitting process — which varies by location along the Grand Strand and can be a significant barrier for out-of-area crews unfamiliar with the regional landscape. It also means connecting crews with local vendors: hotels, florists, caterers, equipment suppliers, and the other behind-the-scenes businesses that a production depends on but rarely considers until they are actually on the ground and the shooting clock is ticking. That kind of concierge-level navigation through a community’s infrastructure is exactly what makes a destination attractive to repeat productions.

Visit Myrtle Beach has also announced plans to launch a dedicated website later this year with specific information for those interested in filming along the Grand Strand. That kind of targeted resource signals a long-term commitment to the film sector — not a one-off accommodation, but an evolving infrastructure built to welcome production work year after year.

The Off-Season Economic Boost Nobody Is Talking About

Every coastal tourism community wrestles with seasonality. The Grand Strand is no exception. Between Labor Day and Memorial Day, hotel occupancy dips, restaurants trim their hours, and the workforce that powers the summer economy either waits or migrates. Film production does not follow a beach calendar, and that is precisely its value as an off-season economic driver.

The production currently underway along the Grand Strand illustrates the model clearly. A six-week shoot with more than fifty crew members means six weeks of hotel stays, restaurant meals, gas station stops, grocery runs, and retail spending — all in a period when those same businesses might otherwise be quiet. That is not vacation-industry money; it is production-industry money, which runs on a different schedule and responds to different incentives. Attracting even a handful of productions per year, particularly in the shoulder seasons, creates a meaningful economic buffer for the local community.

There is also the local talent dimension. The Myrtle Beach area has a community of people who work in film, television, and commercial production — camera operators, production assistants, makeup artists, location scouts, and others who often have to travel far from home to find consistent work. When productions choose the Grand Strand, they typically prioritize hiring local talent when available. That keeps money and expertise within the community and builds the kind of local production ecosystem that makes future shoots more attractive and more efficient.

Set Jetting: When the Screen Sends Travelers to the Shore

There is a travel trend that has been gaining momentum over the past several years, and it has a name that sounds like it was coined in a marketing meeting but describes something genuinely real: set jetting. It is the habit of seeking out the actual locations where a film or television show was filmed — not a theme park approximation, but the real street, the real beach, the real diner where a favorite scene was shot. For destinations lucky enough to be featured in a widely seen production, the effect on tourism can be substantial and long-lasting.

Think about how the Outer Banks of North Carolina became a magnet for a certain kind of young traveler after the Netflix series of the same name found its audience. The connection between a screen story and a real place is powerful precisely because it is personal — viewers form an emotional relationship with a setting before they ever visit, and when they finally arrive, the place carries a resonance that purely promotional content cannot manufacture.

For Myrtle Beach, the promise of set jetting is significant. A viewer in Chicago who watches a film set against the backdrop of the Grand Strand’s ocean and marshes and beach bars may have never considered a South Carolina vacation. But a well-told story filmed in a compelling place has a way of making the abstract feel concrete, and the concrete feel like somewhere worth going. That is a kind of marketing reach that no tourism budget can fully buy.

South Carolina’s Film Legacy — and What It Means for Myrtle Beach

South Carolina is not new to the film industry. The state has served as a backdrop for some of the most recognized titles in American cinema and television. The Notebook, with its sweeping Lowcountry visuals, was filmed partly along the South Carolina coast. Forrest Gump passed through the state’s landscape on its cross-country journey. The Righteous Gemstones, HBO’s darkly comic look at a televangelist dynasty, has used South Carolina locations season after season. And Outer Banks — the Netflix series that helped define coastal drama for a generation of streaming viewers — drew heavily on South Carolina geography for its production.

What is new is that the South Carolina Film Commission has begun specifically recommending the Myrtle Beach area as a filming location. That institutional endorsement matters. Productions looking at South Carolina for the first time will now encounter Myrtle Beach on the official list of recommended locations — which means it is in the conversation at the earliest stage of a location search, rather than discovered as an afterthought.

What the Grand Strand Offers That Other SC Locations Don’t

Charleston has long been the state’s most filmed city, and it deserves its reputation. But Charleston’s historic district comes with significant restrictions, high permit complexity, and intense tourist foot traffic that can complicate location shooting. The Grand Strand offers something different: equivalent scenic variety with a more flexible logistical environment, a larger accommodation base, and a regional culture genuinely invested in welcoming the production industry.

The mix of events and seasonal activity along the Grand Strand also means that a production filming in the area can capture authentic crowd energy when it needs it, and find near-solitude in the off-season when a quieter setting serves the story better. That flexibility is rare and genuinely useful.

What Film Tourism Could Look Like Along the Grand Strand

If the Grand Strand’s film profile continues to grow — and the current trajectory suggests it will — the experience of visiting Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach may eventually include a layer of film tourism that doesn’t yet exist. That could mean guided location tours through spots featured in local productions. It could mean pop-up exhibits at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center or along Main Street in North Myrtle Beach around a film’s release. It could mean the kind of film festival programming that draws a different traveler demographic — one interested in cinema as much as the coast — and that tends to support a more year-round tourism economy.

Cherry Grove Pier in North Myrtle Beach. Barefoot Landing, with its waterfront dining and entertainment. The broad flat expanse of Huntington Beach State Park, just south of Murrells Inlet. The weathered character of downtown Conway, Horry County’s seat, with its riverfront brick buildings. These are locations that already draw visitors for their own merits. In a film tourism context, they become something more — destination stops on a journey shaped by story as much as scenery.

It is worth remembering that Myrtle Beach’s appeal to travelers has always been grounded in the way the place makes people feel. A film can deliver that feeling to an audience that has never crossed the state line into South Carolina. And once someone has felt it — even through a screen — the pull to experience it directly tends to be hard to resist. That is the deeper promise of the Grand Strand’s emerging film identity, and it is one that travelers who love this coast should be paying attention to.

Frequently Asked Questions

Whether you are coming to the Grand Strand because a film brought it to your attention or because you have been making the drive down Highway 17 for decades, North Myrtle Beach is ready to welcome you. Thomas Beach Vacations has been helping families, couples, and groups find their ideal place on this coast for years — oceanfront condos, spacious beach houses, and everything in between. When you are ready to plan your visit, give us a call at (866) 249-2100 or browse available properties at northmyrtlebeachvacations.com. The Grand Strand is having a moment — and there is no better time to be here for it.