Being in the Michelin restaurant guide will cost NC $1 million over 3 years
Prestige has a price.
To be included in the new American South Michelin guide, North Carolina tourism offices will pay more than $1 million over the next three years.
Earlier this month, Michelin announced North Carolina would be included in its latest guide, which awards stars to exceptional restaurants in a region. For restaurants, the opportunity to earn a coveted Michelin star is one of the highest honors in the food world.
The new American South guide, Michelin’s first regional guide, includes North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and absorbs the existing Atlanta guide.
The bulk of the funds come from Visit NC, the state’s tourism office, which will pay $170,000 annually over North Carolina’s three-year Michelin deal. The rest of the money comes from Visit Raleigh, Discover Durham, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority and Explore Asheville, which will pay $45,000 each per year.
That comes to $345,000 annually for North Carolina’s first three years of the guide and $1,035,000 total.
The payments from North Carolina were first reported by Axios Charlotte.
While North Carolina’s food scene has garnered praise and awards for years, Michelin seems to up the game. The Michelin star system is recognized around the globe. To be a Michelin-starred chef or restaurant is the most rarefied culinary air.
Michelin confirmed the practice of states paying for inclusion and said the money is used primarily for marketing.
“(Tourism offices) cover some of the costs incurred in establishing the Michelin Guide in a new location,” said Michelin Guide spokesperson Carly Grieff. ”This is to fund communication, digital and marketing campaigns to promote the selections and broadcast them to the world.”
Other states also paid to be in the American South guide, but Grieff declined to share contract terms for competitive reasons.
The payments from North Carolina and the other states aren’t paid to Michelin directly but to Travel South USA, a decades-old tourism organization that largely markets the South to the rest of the world. Travel South USA is Michelin’s partner in the new guide and its funding comes from the 12 Southern states it represents.
How the Michelin Guide works
Michelin’s American South guide is expected later this year, but its restaurant reviewers (which it calls inspectors) are already in the field.
Simply being in the guide is considered an honor, but inspectors can award restaurants one, two, or three stars to signify particularly notable levels of cooking. Michelin also has the somewhat new Bib Gourmand designation for standout but more casual restaurants that might have historically been left out of the guide.
Michelin says the payments have no impact on the awarding of stars.
“The involvement of Destination Marketing Organizations (tourism offices) in publishing a new Guide does not have any influence on the inspectors’ judgments for the restaurants in the selection, or award distinctions,” Grieff said in an email. “Travel South USA and other partnering (tourism offices) will discover the selected list of restaurants at the same time as the media and chefs – at the Michelin Guide Ceremony. There is no preferential treatment for the DMO in the partnership.”
Michelin puts NC on the culinary map
The Michelin Guide has been around for a century, but it’s only been in the United States for the last 20 years. Guides have grown slowly in North America, starting in major cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., then expanding to Colorado, Florida and most recently Texas.
Visit NC communications director Scott Peacock said the guide will help hungry travelers know to look to North Carolina for culinary adventures.
“It puts North Carolina’s culinary scene on the map,” Peacock said. “It brings global recognition that we know the state and its chefs so rightfully deserve....If there’s a Michelin guide in the South, you better believe North Carolina deserves to be in it.”
For Durham, one of the foodiest cities in the South, being in the guide means building on that reputation, said Discover Durham CEO Susan Amey.
“Michelin carries so much weight and significance in the culinary world,” Amey said. “So many people look to it for an indication for what restaurants to visit when they travel. Its restaurants go on people’s bucket lists; they’re destinations in and of themselves.”
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Being in the Michelin restaurant guide will cost NC $1 million over 3 years."
