The number of visitors to the Reno-Sparks and Washoe County regions over the past year has topped the 5 million mark for the first time since 2007.

What caused the increased visitation for fiscal year 2017? The Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority and area policymakers have a few ideas. The U.S. economy is stronger than ever, and this has led to a renewed push to market the Reno-Tahoe Area, plus all of the buzz from the arrival of high-profile tech companies including Apple, Google and Tesla.

In 2002, this region was in the midst of an economic boom that tracked nearly 5.7 million tourists. The housing bubble popped five years later when the recession hit and tourism fell as expected. Visitor counts fell by nearly a quarter to as low as

Five Reno startups were recognized by the city and state officials this month for raising funding and creating high-paying jobs.

From a company that caters to endurance athletes to one that specializes in the Internet of Things, Governor Brian Sandoval and Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve paid them a special recognition. Breadware, the Sufferfest, Talage, MyVR and Bombora have brought 125 new tech jobs to the area and raised more than $10 million in funding. Even better, the average annual wage for those jobs is $77,000.

“We’re at the brink of a fourth industrial revolution, a new economy,” Sandoval said. “This community… has to be at the foundation and at the beginning of this fourth industrial revolution so we can position this state as the new

Along with Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve, Apple CEO Tim Cook surprised us all with his appearance at the groundbreaking of the new data center in Downtown Reno.

Image courtesy of Las Vegas Review Journal

The new $4 million warehouse is a small extension of Apple’s already wide footprint on the Reno area. The company has announced plans to invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy over the next five years, including doubling the size of its $1 billion data center east of Reno.

“We are pleased to be part of transforming downtown Reno to the vibrant city it should be,” Cook said at the ceremony. “Our commitment to Reno and Northern Nevada is representative of the commitments we’ve made throughout the U.S.”

Cook

Apple has announced that they will double the size of their already massive data center just east of Reno.

Apple executive Mike Foulkes announced last week that the tech giant will invest an additional $1 billion in expanding its data center at the Reno Technology Park. The park sits in the Truckee River canyon to the easy of Sparks and is host to Apple’s existing data center along with cloud services company Rackspace.

“We’re excited to announce Apple will be increasing our investment by an additional $1 billion,” Foulkes said, stressing that it will bring “hundreds of jobs in operations and construction.”

Northern Nevada is becoming a familiar home to the booming data storage industry. Demands for iCloud storage has been on the rise and