How many towels does Myrtle Beach go through in a year?

Let’s face it: no vacation to Myrtle Beach is complete without a trusty towel. From drying off after a swim to defending yourself against rogue seagulls intent on your fries, towels are the unsung heroes of every seaside getaway. But have you ever wondered just how many towels Myrtle Beach tourists go through in a year? Let’s dive into this fluff-filled phenomenon with some (mostly) accurate calculations, sprinkled with a healthy dose of humor.

Towels and Tourism: Crunching the Numbers

Myrtle Beach welcomes approximately 20 million tourists annually. These vacationers flock to the shore, ready to splash, tan, and towel off repeatedly over their stay. Let’s estimate the towel needs of the average vacationer:

• Towel Usage Per Person, Per Day: 2 towels (1 beach towel and 1 for post-shower dignity).

• Average Stay: 5 days.

So, the towel math goes like this: 20,000,000 tourists × 2 towels × 5 days = 200,000,000 towels used annually. That’s 200 million towels, people. Enough to cover Myrtle Beach itself in a technicolor patchwork of terrycloth dreams.

Stocking Myrtle Beach with Towels

Now, imagine if Myrtle Beach decided to stockpile enough towels to meet this demand. If we generously assume that a standard storage closet holds about 200 towels, Myrtle Beach would need 1 million closets to keep up! That’s more closets than there are condos with ocean views—and that’s saying something.

Towel Washing Frenzy

Of course, you can’t just use a towel once and toss it (we’re not monsters). Hotels, resorts, and laundromats churn through staggering amounts of laundry to keep vacationers happy. Let’s say each towel gets washed 5 times per week to keep up with demand. With 200 million towel uses a year, that’s 1 billion towel washes annually.

If each towel load uses about 20 gallons of water, Myrtle Beach would need 20 billion gallons of water just for towel upkeep. That’s practically an ocean of water...oh wait, we already have one of those.

Towels: The Unofficial Mascots of Myrtle Beach

Let’s not forget that towels are more than functional—they’re also fashionable. Think of all the iconic beach scenes where towels serve as makeshift capes for kids, picnic blankets for families, or “please don’t sit here” markers for antisocial sunbathers. Towels bring people together—or keep them comfortably apart.

The Moral of the Towel Tale

The next time you grab your beach towel, spare a thought for the unsung logistical miracle that keeps Myrtle Beach soft, fluffy, and sand-free for millions of visitors. Retro Myrtle Beach Guy would probably tell us all to be responsible towel users—shake that sand off before bringing it indoors and avoid the temptation to turn your towel into a seagull slingshot. Respect the towel; respect Myrtle Beach.

And who knows, maybe next year Myrtle Beach will declare an official "Towel Appreciation Day." One thing's for sure: we’d all need a bigger linen closet.