SPARTANBURG - Tourism, which has grown to a $16 billion industry in South Carolina, could more than double in the next 13 years with more money, product development and partnerships, the state's top tourism leader said Monday.

But destinations, including the Grand Strand - where the industry is a $5 billion business - must step up to help tourism overcome a shortage of resources and lack of recognition as an economic driver, Chad Prosser, director of the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism department said during the opening session of the Governor's Conference on Tourism and Travel.

If the strategy is followed, tourism could grow to an annual $40 billion industry by 2020, he said.

"We have barely scraped the surface of the potential of the tourism industry," Prosser told the 450 attendees at the Spartanburg Marriott. "The real question remaining, though, is do we have the resolve. It's time for us to stand up as an industry and take advantage of that $40 billion opportunity."

The strategy, called the Tourism Action Plan, was compiled by consultant Michael MacNulty, who helped guide Ireland tourism to an $8 billion industry with 8 million visitors a year.

He spent seven months talking with 400 leaders throughout the state about how South Carolina's largest industry could improve, part of a competitiveness strategy for the state's economy launched in 2004 by Harvard economist Michael Porter.

Among MacNulty's suggestions:

-- Mix public and private dollars for marketing, a strategy successfully used by Visit Florida.

-- Improve air service and roads to make it easier for tourists to get here.

-- Build up destinations in the Upstate.

-- Create training programs for hospitality workers.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham urged leaders to work together because there are not enough federal dollars to dole out to every individual destination.

"Think regionally," he said.

MacNulty said unlike other businesses that have distinct brands, tourism struggles to get recognition and funding because it is a fragmented industry made up of disparate parts such as a mom-and-pop hotel or a rental car business.

"Partnerships will make it happen," he said.

To overcome challenges, Grand Strand businesses are working together to buy ads in bigger markets that each probably couldn't afford alone, said Peter MacIntyre, general manager of Ripley's Aquarium.

"Individually, these units, these properties don't have the strength to really have more reach beyond our communities," he said.

The Grand Strand took it a step further last year by creating the Myrtle Beach Marketing Cooperative, a formal group made up of local businesses, to raise advertising funds, said Mickey McCamish, executive director of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, which promotes golf. The 60-plus Marketing Co-op members meet regularly to decide where to buy ads and what they should say.

"Our objective is the same," McCamish said. "The [state's Tourism Action Plan] is doable."

The conference, the largest annual gathering of tourism representatives throughout the state, continues today with a visit by Gov. Mark Sanford.

Contact DAWN BRYANT at 626-0296 or dbryant@thesunnews.com.