Buncombe County tourism authority proposes $27.5 million budget to boost visitors
Buncombe’s tourism authority wants $27.5 million to keep visitors coming, even as Helene’s damage and neighborhood pressure sharpen questions about who benefits.
Buncombe County’s tourism machine is asking taxpayers to keep betting on visitors, even after Tropical Storm Helene shattered travel patterns and left an estimated $584 million hole in local visitor revenue. The new $27.5 million budget proposal is built around marketing and growth, but in Asheville, Swannanoa and beyond, the harder question is what residents get back when the county spends so heavily to bring more people here.
The money flows from Buncombe County’s 6% occupancy tax, which by law is split two-thirds for tourism promotion and one-third for tourism-related capital projects. That structure has made the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority one of the most powerful spenders in Western North Carolina. In June 2024, the authority approved a $27.3 million operating budget for fiscal 2025, with about $19.5 million for marketing, $4.4 million for salaries and benefits, nearly $1.7 million for business development, about $1 million for administration and facilities, and about $700,000 for partnership and destination management.
The authority has said nearly 14 million tourists visited Buncombe County in 2024, including about 9 million day trippers. Tourism supports about 27,000 jobs in the county, a reminder that the industry is not just a branding exercise but a payroll engine for hotels, restaurants, breweries and attractions from downtown Asheville to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yet recovery has been uneven. In January 2026, Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville and the tourism authority, described the rebound as a “mixed bag,” reflecting the gap between reopened businesses and lingering damage from Helene.
That tension has only intensified the debate over how much should go to marketing versus community needs. Earlier reporting said the authority had budgeted more than $100 million to market Asheville since 2017 and that its marketing-and-promotion budget supported a 35-person Explore Asheville staff. Supporters argue the spending is necessary to compete with places such as Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Nashville. Critics, including state Sen. Julie Mayfield, have argued that Asheville is already a well-known destination and that some tourism dollars should be redirected toward local priorities.
The authority has still kept funding visitor-facing projects, approving $12.4 million for eight area capital projects in October 2025. Those dollars have helped shape destination projects such as McCormick Field restoration and other improvements meant to draw more visitors while also improving quality of life. That is the core tradeoff now facing Buncombe County: whether another round of tourism investment strengthens the region’s recovery, or simply brings more traffic, more pressure and more profit to a county still measuring what Helene took away.
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