ASHEVILLE – Even as the city remains without clean water after Tropical Storm Helene, the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority and Explore Asheville have restarted marketing efforts as the region braces for sustained economic unrest.
After the Biltmore announced it’s reopening date of Nov. 2 and the NC Arboretum’s reopening on Oct. 28, the BCTDA plans to continue to encourage visitors back to the region in “pockets and stages,” said Dodie Stephens, Explore Asheville’s vice president of marketing.
Visitors should come to Asheville with “heart, patience and careful planning,” she said during the BCTDA’s Oct. 30 meeting.
By restarting advertising, the BCTDA is essentially re-inviting tourists back to the mountains. With the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s guidance, the county was placed under a “yellow” travel advisory on VisitNC’s Travel Advisory Map on Oct. 19, meaning that tourists should check for closures and limitations prior to visiting.
The storm caused an estimated damage of nearly $54 billion across Western North Carolina, making it the most expensive in the state’s history. Across the city of Asheville, the floods destroyed houses, businesses and an estimated 80% of the River Arts District — which had been flourishing with breweries, restaurants and new apartments along the French Broad River.
Over 12% of Asheville’s jobs are in the food preparation and serving industry, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the largest share of any industry in the city, and stands to be one of the most impacted by the storm. Some worry that workers will leave as opportunity remains low.
Visitors contributed $3 billion to Buncombe County’s economy in 2023, a report from VisitNC said in August. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper had previously told the Citizen Times that tourists should stay home given the poor conditions of the region after Helene. During that time, Explore Asheville had paused marketing efforts.
One of the major reasons for reopening Asheville is to keep area businesses afloat given Helene’s damage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates 43% of small businesses affected by disasters never reopen, while an additional 29% go out of business within two years of a disaster. Long-term closures have likely already changed Asheville’s workforce, BCTDA CEO Vic Isley said.
“I’ve heard many conversations over the last several weeks that many of our frontline workforce is already in other communities.” Isley said, estimating that some have said that it’s currently between “20-30%” of workers.
“We know that we need to be a catalyst in terms of making sure that we do not have an economic disaster following a natural disaster,” Isley said during the meeting.
Months ahead the hardest
Currently, forecasts for the hospitality industry are grim. Tourism Economics, a tourism analytics firm the authority works with, projected that collected lodging taxes will likely be between 45% to 30% lower than originally expected for the next nine months, meaning fewer visitors going to shows, eating in restaurants and traveling to see the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The next few months will likely be the hardest, projections show.
Compared to 2023 and 2024, collected lodging taxes are projected to decline between 45%-40% in November, December and January. The pace of economic recovery could depend on how fast essential services and other attractions are restored, Isley said. The BCTDA’s operating budget makes up two-thirds of total lodging tax revenue, while the other third is split between two funds spent on tourism development projects.
After natural disasters, tourism industry recovery efforts can be years-long efforts, but most do recover within one year, according to Tourism Economics. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans took three and a half years to recover. Puerto Rico took two years to recover after Hurricane Maria.
Isley described Katrina’s impacts on New Orleans as “probably the closest” to Asheville’s situation post-Helene.
Compared to other cities affected by major storms, the element of damaged water infrastructure is somewhat of an outlier in comparative recovery efforts, Isley noted.
Few locations that face disastrous flooding also experienced the total collapse of public infrastructure as Asheville has with its water system. Even as the city has finished the installation of turbidity curtains at the North Fork Reservoir, it’s still unclear how long the city is going to go without clean water.
“I hope it’s sooner than later, but I don’t know if it’s going to be a week, two weeks, another month away,” said HP Patel, a BCTDA board member who is also a local hotelier in the area. “We just lost our busiest month out of the year.”
More:Heroes and heartbreak: 36 hours of hell during Helene’s historic floods
Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at [email protected]. Consider supporting this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
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