Visitors have been an important part of the fabric of the Western North Carolina community for generations. In 2023, visitors brought $3 billion in spending to Asheville and Buncombe County alone. About 29,000 residents were employed in the tourism sector, with wages topping a combined $1 billion — about 20% of Buncombe County’s GDP. In the fourth quarter of 2024, throughout WNC, $2.1 billion which typically gets redistributed to other local businesses could be lost due to the devastated tourism industry. 

For WNC, October is typically the busiest time for tourism. Tourism everywhere took a hit during COVID, but WNC quickly rebounded until the industry slowed in the first half of 2024. Due to the timing of the hurricane, there has been a significant loss of revenue and jobs, which severely impacts the community, but also ripples into the community in the form of lost sales tax revenue that pays for municipal services.

Occupancy taxes collected by lodging businesses fund the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, or Explore Asheville, whose role is to further promote area visitation and generate jobs and income for locals. Additionally, visitors spend 70% of their dollars in food and beverage outlets, retail shops, art galleries, tour outfitters, and transportation partners. 

Explore Asheville President and CEO Vic Isley said immediately following Helene, the organization and its partners compiled programs to help support the local businesses that depend on tourism for their success. Within 15 days, Love Asheville From Afar was established.

Love Asheville From Afar is an initiative encouraging online shopping from local merchants and businesses. During COVID, a virtual holiday gift guide supported E-commerce when brick-and-mortar sales were down. Beginning with 300 participants, and consisting of approximately 750 by the beginning of December, this initiative encourages the support of local businesses while they are not in operation, keeping them and the community top of mind for would-be visitors.

“We know that this is working,” Isley said. “We’ve had feedback from folks actually getting sales through this process. We’re going to continue working on promoting Love Asheville From Afar while also supporting our business community in opening their doors safely when and where it’s safe to do so.”

Another initiative created by Explore Asheville and its partners is the Always Asheville Fund. This Fund was established to help small travel and hospitably businesses recover from Helene’s destruction and aftermath. Seeded with $300,000 from Explore Asheville’s earned revenue fund, the available funds grew to more than $770,000 in three weeks (more than $1 million by mid-November) and is still receiving donations; however, in less than one week, Explore Asheville received 307 grant applications adding up to an immediate need of nearly $3 million.

During COVID, Explore Asheville ran a Tourism Jobs Recovery Fund grant program, and of the 400 businesses that received grants through that program, 90% of them were still open four years later. With staggering statistics showing around 40% of businesses never reopen after a disaster like Helene and understanding how important small businesses are to Asheville, Buncombe County, and Western North Carolina as a whole, Explore Asheville continues to seek donations to support tourism-facing businesses like art galleries, tour outfitters, restaurants, and breweries.

While these initiatives specify Buncombe County businesses, Isley said the whole WNC region needs to work together to regain its vitality.

“I’ve heard many times from other small towns that they work with how we work,” Isley said. “Buncombe County often works as a heart pumping blood for the economy through these other places. Sadly, some of them don’t exist anymore, but some of them are trying to build back in a stronger way. One thing about Western North Carolina is that I’ve never seen such grit, gumption, and determination and resolve around this in terms of how we’re coming out of it, so I feel very confident in that.”

Based on economics data collected with the help of Tourism Economics, the average recovery time for visitor spending in a community is 14 months. Infrastructure challenges in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina caused a recovery time period of 42 months, and in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria it was about 24 months. Isley hopes the resolve of the region along with recovery resources can beat those odds.

To continue encouraging visitation throughout the region, Explore Asheville is working with Visit NC and regional partners in neighboring communities to promote tourism in outlying WNC towns. Their websites offer maps and itineraries to help visitors understand where they can visit safely, and the organizations are encouraging business leaders to schedule executive retreats and conferences to be held within the region for the months and years to come to help strengthen the comeback in WNC.

“The needs are going to be long, but we’re all here for it,” Isley said. “Many businesses have gone through great lengths and expense to reopen. We’re working with our partners to ensure people are educated on how they can support, when they can support, and where they can support. If there are any businesses, entities, or individuals that want to contribute to the Always Asheville Fund to continue to support our small business community here that makes Western North Carolina so distinct, we would certainly welcome that.”