Noreen Nickolas
MNJ Correspondent
Mitchell County’s Tourism Development Authority (TDA) held a summit to update colleagues on the progress Mitchell County’s tourism industry has made since Helene and what needs to be done going forward.
According to Kelly Jones, director of Discover Mitchell County and TDA, the event was designed to provide information and data that will help Mitchell County’s tourism industry.
“We are new,” Jones said. “The TDA separated from the Mitchell County Chamber (of Commerce) in 2022. I am entering my second year and still working to develop some foundations,” she said.
Moving forward, a few of the changes and additions that will help with revenue and bringing in tourists include the General Assembly’s raising the occupancy tax from 3 percent to 6 percent, making MerryMitchell.com a holiday tradition, advertising yearly Spruce Pine and Bakersville festivals, accessing software that tracks visitors comings and goings, creating marketing videos informing visitors that Mitchell County is open for business, and hiring a tourism consultant.
“Alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much,” Jones said.
Chris Cavanaugh, the TDA’s new tourism consultant, lives in Asheville, and has spent “the last 20 years as a destination consultant for areas like Mitchell County and tourism entities across the state and across the nation.”
Cavanaugh explained how important tourism is to a community.
“Tourism is much more important than it ever has been,” Cavanaugh said. “I’ve worked in a lot of communities across the state and around the nation . . . that are way behind where Mitchell County and the tremendous assets that you have here and yet they are all trying to embrace tourism because tourism is important to our economy in ways that . . . have been demonstrated as being well beyond the initial visit.”
Weekend visitors can become neighbors
In short, Cavanaugh said, visitors can bring businesses here, retire here, and maybe someday serve the community in important roles, such as doctors or physician’s assistants.
“The person who comes to your business, your bed and breakfast, your short-term rental, may be in fact someone who is going to have a significant economic impact beyond just tours, beyond just those three nights that they happen to be staying in our community,” he said.
The summit featured speakers with updates from Visit NC, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC Wildlife, Roan Mountain, Chamber of Commerce, Mayland Small Business Center, App State Small Business and Technology Development Center, Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, and local governments.
Bakersville Mayor Charles E. Vines spoke about the storm recovery process in Bakersville.
“The creek is about 8 to 20 yards wider than it was,” Vines said.
The mayor said that there is a lot more work to do to restores the area to what it was, but “We will be back. We have all the intentions in the world to do that.”
And while cleanup has been difficult, Spencer Bost, executive director of Downtown Spruce Pine, said that “it’s looking promising, looking good . . . Our board has shown a great effort to get our downtown cleaned up.”
Hard times
Allen Cook, county manager, spoke about the hardships the community has faced.
“We’ve been through a lot, we took a hard punch,” he said “And then we started fighting back.” He also included a message of hope when he described an experience he had with emergency management workers from out of state. Even though they were working in a disaster, “They said, ‘I want to come back here and vacation,’” he said. “They see those beautiful Spruce Pine leaves and that mist coming off the mountains and they want to come back.”