From Staff Reports

The massive damage sustained by Buncombe County’s tourism industry — which keeps afloat many regional employers, restaurants and attractions — came into focus during the Jan. 29 Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority Board meeting, “with the authority providing a clearer image of how deeply lodging sales were impacted by Tropical Storm Helene,” the Asheville Citizen Times reported on Jan. 30.

 â€œBuncombe County Assistant Finance Director Mason Scott said during the meeting that, similar to October 2024, November was one of the worst performing months in years for lodging sales due in large part to the storm,” the newspaper noted. 

“In total, lodging sales for Buncombe County were around $24 million, down 57 percent from November 2023, according to data released by the BCTDA. 

“October saw $19 million in gross lodging sales, down 74 percent from the same month in 2023. 

“Sales for both months were even worse than the same months in 2020, when the country was in the middle of the national COVID-19 pandemic,” the ACT stated.

“The authority had previously anticipated a 70 percent loss in the fourth quarter of 2024, leading to an estimated $584 million in lost revenue for local businesses,” the ACT noted.

Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville and the BCTDA, was quoted by the newspaper as saying, “The only other people who I can think of that are dealing with this right now are our friends in California.”

The ACT added, “Lodging taxes and sales are often used as a ‘forward metric’ that gauges the impacts of tourism in various other industries, Isley said. For instance, tourists book a room and then spend money at local restaurants, shops and services while also making trips to regional attractions like the Biltmore Estate or the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“Some hotels, however, have had business sheltering residents.

“As a result of FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program placing displaced residents in hotels, many hoteliers are still receiving money from the federal program.” 

The ACT added, “The TSA program has provided hotel rooms to more than 13,000 residents in Western North Carolina, according to FEMA, but some payments to hoteliers have been ‘spotty’ from the agency, said BCTDA Vice President of Culture and Business Affairs Jennifer Kass-Green.

“The TSA program, which currently houses over 2,600 households in WNC, is also having different effects on how the BCTDA reports lodging statistics, as hotels ‘in their own right and also through FEMA programs’ are housing displaced residents, leading to a slight increase in hotel room demand between December 2023 and December 2024, Isley noted.” 

Also at the BCTDA meeting, it was noted that “vacation rentals have not seen the same increase after occupancy in the overnight room type known for being listed on services like Airbnb and Vrbo ‘bottomed out’ in October,” the ACT stated.

“For the rest of the year, the BCTDA projects that lodging tax will steadily rise, but it is not expected to return to pre-Helene conditions,” the newspaper noted.

“The authority projects that Helene will still affect lodging as far out as June, with an estimated 25 percent decrease in collected occupancy tax in Buncombe County in the mid-summer months,” the ACT reported.