All partner resources and webpages have officially moved from AshevilleCVB.com to ExploreAsheville.com/Partners. Visiting these pages regularly helps you stay informed about partner news, financial resources, workforce programs, and tools designed to support your business. Take a minute to browse the new pages, bookmark them, and check back each month for updates that can directly benefit your organization.

What you’ll find:

• About Us: Learn about Explore Asheville, the BCTDA, and the value of the visitor economy
• Partner with Us: Find partnership guidelines, Partner Portal tutorials, advertising opportunities, industry events invitations, and the partner communications archive
• Destination Management & Stewardship: Explore funding and support programs such as TPDF, LIFT, the Festivals & Cultural Events Support Fund, and Event Sponsorships, in addition to Workforce Development programming and the Wayfinding Signage Program

Explore Asheville is excited to partner with the travel industry nonprofit Tourism Cares to host its 2026 North American Meaningful Travel Summit, taking place April 14–16.

This three-day gathering will bring together 150+ travel professionals—including tour operators, meeting planners, destinations, and travel advisors—who are shaping the future of responsible travel. Asheville was chosen by Tourism Cares as the 2026 host for its story of resilience after Hurricane Helene and its ongoing leadership in environmental responsibility and community impact.

Local Opportunity: Asheville-area businesses can purchase a special one-day pass to participate in the Summit’s Education Day and Networking Reception on April 14—a unique chance to connect directly with the travel trade, share your story, and explore new collaboration opportunities.

BONUS: Register by December 31, 2025, to receive 25% off your pass.

For restaurants: will your restaurant be open on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's? Let us know by emailing your holiday hours and offerings to news@exploreasheville.com, and we’ll feature you in our dining guides: Restaurants Open on Thanksgiving in Asheville and Asheville Restaurants Open on Christmas and New Year’s.

For all partners—here are three ways to get ready for seasonal visitors:

1. Upload holiday events to the Explore Asheville Event Calendar, using our special “Seasonal” and “Holiday” event categories | Tutorial here
2. List your special holiday offers and deals in the Partner Portal, using unique titles to capture seasonal visitors | Tutorial here
3. Keep us up to date with your holiday offerings by emailing us at news@exploreasheville.com so we can amplify your offerings across all channels

River Arts District Artists (RADA) recently launched its second grant cycle to help artists, collectives, and galleries stay open or reopen, despite the challenges brought by the storm. Funds are intended to help cover operating costs, facility repairs, equipment, staffing, and other essential expenses that ensure continued artistic production and community engagement.

Grants of up to $3,000 are available, and the application deadline is November 1. Learn more about eligibility here. Know an artist or gallery that could benefit? Share this opportunity with them!

Resources for Resilience, in partnership with the NC Department of Health & Human Services and Vaya Health, is offering free resiliency-building workshops, trainings, and other supportive programming to help WNC’s frontline and essential workers manage stress, prevent burnout, and build resilience in themselves and others. These trainings and professional development workshops teach practical, hands-on strategies to keep individuals, teams, and communities strong in the face of adversity.

Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ and Devil’s Foot Beverage Company have teamed up to make a new non-alcoholic sparkling beverage—Sparkling Blackberry Blueberry Lemonade—with a portion of proceeds supporting Linked4Life, a Bear’s Foundation initiative that provides free mental health therapy sessions for Asheville food and beverage workers.

In partnership with All Souls Counseling, Linked4Life offers up to six free therapy sessions to local food and beverage employees or those who lost restaurant jobs due to Hurricane Helene. 

Several large groups of 300 attendees or more will visit Asheville in November and December, bringing millions of dollars in economic impact to our community. Explore Asheville is encouraging these attendees to come early and stay late when travelling to the area, and we’re asking our partners to submit special deals in the Partner Portal to get your business in front of these large audiences. 

Upcoming Large Groups in Town

• November 7–9 | NC Optometric Fall Congress 2025 | 350 attendees
• November 13 | Governor's 2025 North Carolina Awards | 500 attendees
• November 20–23 | 2025 SoCon Volleyball Championship | 2,000 attendees
• December 4–7 | Winter Family Physicians Weekend | 400 attendees
• December 19–20 | 2025 Great Smoky Mountain Grapple | 1,500 attendees

How to Participate

• Add your special deal or package in the Partner Portal. Encourage attendees to “Come Early and Stay Late” in the description | Tutorial
• Think creatively by offering lodging discounts, dining specials, retail perks, or experience packages. All businesses can participate, and deals can be anything you want. No offer is too small.

If you have questions or would like to discuss an idea with us, please get in touch with Emily Crosby, Director of Group Services. Thank you for helping us extend the warm Asheville welcome and make the most of these high-impact group visits!

Asheville wrote the first chapter of America’s country music story by producing the earliest commercial recordings of Appalachian music two years before any other city. In 1925, a mobile recording studio set up at the George Vanderbilt Hotel captured the voices of a region rarely heard beyond its mountain borders. Known as “The Asheville Sessions,” these recordings helped lay the foundation for what would become American roots and country music. 

Explore Asheville is the presenting sponsor of “The Asheville Sessions: Celebrating 100 years of Americana & Appalachia,” a November weekend filled with concerts and events linking the groundbreaking work of 1925 to the city’s thriving modern music scene. Have you secured your tickets yet?

Ticketed Performances

Ketch Secor with Nest of Singing Birds + Jesse Smathers | Nov. 7 | 5–10 p.m. | The Grey Eagle Music Hall and Pub | GET TICKETS

River Whyless, Tyler Ramsey, Toubab Krewe + Floating Action | Nov. 8 | 7–10 p.m. | Thomas Wolfe Auditorium | GET TICKETS

Free and donation-based events include the kickoff celebration, symposium, a community concert, and a concert benefitting Blue Ridge Music Trails. Click below to see the full Asheville Sessions lineup.

• Asheville's Finest Deli
• Boutique Royale
• Crusco
• Curiouser Boutique
• Dolci di Maria
• Easy Tiger
• Elite Global Transportation
• Foothills Grange
• Glam DJ Ganymede
• Hell or High Water
• House of Black Cat Magic, Co.

• Jennifer Jewel Photography
• MTB Skills Factory
• Michael Freas Photography
• Museum of Costume Jewelry
• Pedal Cab Co.
• Recess Coffee
• The Pure and Proper
• Tia Nicole Ward Photography
• Village Artist Market
• Willbloom Books