From Staff Reports

HENDERSONVILLE — Michelle Owens, executive director of the Visit Hendersonville Tourism Development Authority, “is trying to lure tourists this holiday season, but in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene, she has her work cut out for her,” the Hendersonville Times-News reported on Dec. 5

“Twenty billion — with a ‘B’ — eyeballs saw negative coverage of Western North Carolina in the first week of the storm,” Owens told the HT-N in early December. “So that’s the impression we’re up against: people thinking that everything is leveled, and everything is flattened, and therefore [they] need to stay away.”

She added, “Our brand is Hendersonville. Our destination is Henderson County.” So, right now, “We are laser-focused on: ‘Come enjoy this magical time of year in a magical place.”

The HT-N noted that the tourism agency’s “Home for the Holidays” digital ad campaign “is promoting romantic winter getaways and outdoor activities, old-fashioned holiday activities on Hendersonville’s Main Street, and gifts that can be bought online and shipped.”

Owens told the HT-N, “Ads are targeted toward people who live within driving distance and/or have previously visited or shown affinity for the area.”

The HT-N added, “Henderson County’s association with the greater Asheville area usually attracts visitors, but in this case may cause them to stay home if they see, for instance, that Chimney Rock State Park is closed, and that Biltmore Estate is still being repaired.”  

To that end, Owens was quoted by the HT-N as saying, “Because Asheville is a much larger destination with a larger media footprint, it often gets substituted in the potential visitors mind for all of Western North Carolina, right?” Owens said. “So, we’re trying to tell the story that, ‘No, we’re okay (in Henderson County). Come see us. You know, there are places you cannot go, and your experience might be a little bit different now, but, but come on.’” 

The HT-N then noted, “The agency is funded by occupancy taxes, which visitors pay when they stay at an overnight accommodation. Its budget for July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, is $4.3 million... Owens said October accounts for 10 percent of the agency’s annual revenue.”

Owens told the newspaper “You can’t just magically make that back up.”

Meanwhile, Oliver Wall, general manager of the Main Street Hendersonville outpost of Mast General Store, told the HT-N that sales were down 25 to 80 percent for the month of October for the company’s locations in Waynesville, Asheville and Boone. 

“Dropping those tourists, and many locals for that matter, at one of the busiest times of the year was massive,” Wall was quoted as saying by th HT-N. “Our store was closed in Hendersonville for exactly a week without power. Our store in Asheville was closed for around three weeks...

“There’s no glass half full,” he said. “There’s no shining that up.”

However, Wall ended the HT-N interview on a positive note, noting that his company has seen an uptick in business recently, “so we’re very hopeful.”