Asheville tourism leaders see strong demand despite uncertainty

Tourism leaders said Asheville was still drawing travelers despite economic uncertainty and Helene-era perceptions, pointing to an 80% increase in lodging searches on Expedia. The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority also approved a $34.5 million budget on June 25, a sign that the county is still leaning hard on visitor spending even as the recovery remains uncertain.

The demand data sat beside weaker local numbers. County tourism officials described 2025 as a “mixed bag,” and one report put Buncombe County lodging sales down 23% in fiscal 2025. Leisure and hospitality employment in the Asheville metro fell to 25,800 jobs in September 2025, more than 7% below the year before. That gap matters in a county where a rise in search traffic does not automatically mean fuller hotel registers, busier dining rooms or steadier shifts for workers who depend on tips and seasonal volume.

Explore Asheville says nearly 30,000 people in Buncombe County earn their living through tourism. In its one-year-after-Helene materials, the organization said visitors spent almost $3 billion in 2023 and contributed about $265 million in taxes, while 2024 direct spending still reached $2.65 billion despite Helene’s uneven late-year impact. Explore Asheville also says nearly 70% of traveler spending flows directly into local businesses outside lodging, which puts restaurants, retailers, artists and other service businesses at the center of the county’s recovery.

The latest messaging from the destination has leaned on that same mix of optimism and caution. Explore Asheville’s 2026 kickoff materials highlighted a record year in group travel bookings and said visitors spent $2.5 billion across local businesses in 2024, while also promoting major events and new offerings as the region worked to rebuild confidence. The budget adopted by the tourism authority came as state limits on how tourism-tax money can be used tightened, making the spending plan part marketing strategy and part recovery math.

Buncombe County was already one of North Carolina’s largest visitor economies before Helene. A 2023 Tourism Economics report ranked the county third in the state, behind Mecklenburg and Wake counties. The tourism authority, created by the North Carolina legislature in 1983, still oversees the occupancy-tax revenue that helps fund the county’s visitor economy, and the question now is how much of the online interest turns into actual stays, restaurant checks and payroll hours in Asheville.