Left to right: Brenda Durden, Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority; DeWayne Barton, Hood Huggers International; Chase Pickering, Biltmore; Jeffrey Burroughs, River Arts District Artist; Tiffany Thacker, Explore Asheville; Warren Haynes’ Mother, Soulshine; James Curley, Servin’ Up Love; Vic Isley, Explore Asheville

Buncombe County and WNC’s Recovery and Revival
Take Center Stage at Explore Asheville’s Year Ahead Event

Five Industry-Leading Entities and Efforts Honored with Explore Asheville Superstar Awards; Sustainability and Resilience, Transportation, and Recovery and Revival Panelists Shared Local and National Perspectives on Pathways to Rebuild

Attendees are Encouraged to Provide Event Feedback Here

Nearly 350 community leaders and tourism industry partners gathered Wednesday at the Ferguson Auditorium on A-B Tech’s campus for Explore Asheville’s first partner event of 2025, The Year Ahead: The Road to Recovery and Revival. The event underscored a pivotal theme: seizing this moment of recovery as an opportunity to build back stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient than before.

The third annual gathering began with welcoming remarks from Asheville City Mayor Esther Manheimer and Buncombe County Commission Chair Amanda Edwards. Vic Isley shared a President & CEO Report, a special Asheville Superstar Award ceremony highlighted community-led relief initiatives, and three panel discussions delved into transportation infrastructure, sustainability, recovery, and revival. A light reception and a City of Asheville community development block grants (CDBG-DR) public input session concluded the event.

Opening Statements from Elected Leadership

Buncombe County Commission Chair Amanda Edwards kicked off the program by honoring the travel and hospitality community’s immediate response to Hurricane Helene. “To those among us who are employees or owners of travel and hospitality businesses, you have forever redefined resiliency, fortitude, and scrappiness,” said Edwards. “Your own home may have washed away on September 27, you couldn’t contact your immediate family, and there was no tap water, still, many of you offered the rest of us food, shelter, and comfort.”

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer emphasized the unique opportunity ahead. “This is a transformational moment for our community to build back better, invest in resiliency, and make sure that we come out of this on the backside better than we went in,” said Manheimer. “With the continued partnership with the Tourism Development Authority, there are continued opportunities for us to rebuild in a way that will be wonderful for our community going forward and bring greater and better opportunities for investment and return on that investment. We need to see visitors come back to our community and enjoy it as they did once before, but even better in the future.”

Edwards and Mayor Manheimer stressed the importance of securing funding for business recovery and advocating for legislators to pass additional funding for infrastructure that will support long-term growth.

Travel & Hospitality Realities

President & CEO of Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority Vic Isley spoke to the power of travel, the measurable economic benefits that visitors bring to our community, and the economic realities facing the region.

“The natural, emotional, and economic tolls have been heavy,” said Isley while speaking to the latest lodging tax forecast from Tourism Economics. “In the fourth quarter alone, we estimate 70% of the visitor economy was lost, totaling nearly $585 million. To maintain the creative fabric of our small, independent business community throughout the Western North Carolina region, we will need more assistance and the return of visitors to our communities.”

2024 Explore Asheville Superstar Recipients

Since 2013, Explore Asheville has presented its annual Superstar Awards to partners who have been actively engaged in multiple initiatives throughout the year and supportive of Explore Asheville’s efforts. This year, Explore Asheville considered the extraordinary commitment of local organizations to support the immediate and ongoing recovery efforts for the travel and hospitality industry and the greater Asheville area community.

Hood Huggers International played a key role in on-the-ground distribution of supplies from industry colleagues in Charleston to those in need in our community and neighborhoods in the early days following Helene.

Biltmore contributed significantly to Asheville's recovery through the creation of the $2 million Biltmore Relief Fund for WNC, which seeded early initiatives like small business grants through the Always Asheville Fund, Meals on Wheels, and Community Foundation of WNC, among others.

River Arts District Artists quickly united to courageously launch the first RADFest to bring back locals and creatives just weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the area.

Cooks for Carolina embodied the heart and generous spirit of the hospitality community by cohosting 13 curated dinners in New Orleans, which ultimately raised $100,000 for small, independent restaurants in Asheville and Buncombe County.

Soulshine, organized by Warren Haynes on behalf of Western North Carolina, was a beacon of hope that raised $4 million for local organizations such as Arts AVL, Beloved Asheville, and the Always Asheville Fund, to support local relief and recovery.

Stars Servin’ Up Love aired live nationally on The Tennis Channel provided a meaningful and enjoyable evening of professional and celebrity tennis matches for community members and visitors, raising over $1 million during a time of great need.

Each honoree received a stained glass Explore Asheville award, handcrafted by Asheville artist Lindsey Barr of Mountain Magic Glass.

Shining a Light on the Pathway to Recovery

Local and national experts engaged in three panel discussions aligned with Explore Asheville's strategic goals. They reflected on pivotal moments of recovery and shared insights on opportunities for continued collaboration, fostering an economy poised to come back even stronger than before. Intentionality plus visionary and resilient planning emerged as common themes, as well as an emphasis on leveraging the region’s environmental, cultural, and economic strengths.

“Asheville has an outsized reputation as an international destination for outdoor recreation,” said Senior Director of Programs at the Rails to Trails Conservancy Eric Oberg. “You are a destination because of the people that live here. It’s because of your creative class and the people who want an authentic place to experience and visit. The investment in your recovery must first be an investment in your people, creativity, and culture. Keep concentrating on Asheville, your people, your businesses, because that’s why you have a tourism economy.”

During the transportation panel, the discussion highlighted how transportation infrastructure served as a crucial lifeline for recovery after the storm and the current effort to rebuild.

“While we had about 200 linear miles of the parkway that were very significantly impacted, there are many known and loved places already open,” said Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway Tracy Swartout. “The entire parkway will reopen. It’s important to share that and to have people know what it means to have this much construction over the next five to ten years. A lot of the heavy road work will be accomplished in the next few years, and we will have a lot of wins to celebrate at the end of this calendar year.”

The final panel focused on recovery and revival, bringing expert advice from New Orleans, a community commemorating the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the largest natural disaster in American history.

“Because Asheville is such a special place, people want to come back and want to invest. In New Orleans, we think about visitors as investors because, without that money, locals will have to invest in that infrastructure alone,” said President & CEO of New Orleans & Company Walt Leger III.

Leger highlighted the vital role that organizations such as Explore Asheville and Visit NC play as key public relations representatives for the community, particularly in times of crisis. “There is no more powerful tool from a visitorship standpoint than to be able to promote your destination,” Leger continued, “It’s not just as a destination but as a place to live and work and invest and visit. The messaging needs to get out there, and there is a huge return on investment.” Leger and Isley both serve on the executive board of the US Travel Association.

In his final remarks, Leger stressed the importance of not letting discomfort from disruptive events prevent long-lasting transformational improvements in the community. “It’s important that people find a way to separate themselves and their own timeframe from the community's lifespan," Leger said. "If it takes five years to do something that really matters and makes something stronger for the long haul, it is worth it. Twenty years out of three hundred years is a really small drop in the bucket.”

Isley closed out the ceremony by recognizing the paradoxical circumstances of the community’s recovery. “We are on a continuum and will be as a community and region for quite some time,” said Isley. “Hold space and give grace to those in our community. Let people go ahead when they can to support our economic revival and support people and places that will need more time to heal in Buncombe County and the rest of Western North Carolina.”

Attendees enjoyed a light networking reception featuring coffee from Summit Coffee and a breakfast spread from The Rabbit Hole before gathering in the auditorium for the City of Asheville’s business resource session. Ticket sales raised $4,000, which will be used to support Explore Asheville’s Workforce Development Program launching this spring.

The Year Ahead Panelists

Sustainability & Resilience

• Lisa Raleigh, Executive Director of RiverLink
• Eddie Dewey, Founder of Dewey Property Associates
• Eric Oberg, Senior Director of Programs at the Rails to Trails Conservancy Transportation

Infrastructure

• Lew Bleiweis, President & CEO of the Greater Asheville Regional Airport
• Tim Anderson, Division Engineer at the NC Department of Transportation
• Tracy Swartout, Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Recovery & Revival

• Scott Peacock, Vice President of Marketing at Visit NC 
• Walt Leger III, President & CEO of New Orleans & Company
• Dodie Stephens, Vice President of Marketing at Explore Asheville .

Other News Announced During The Year Ahead

• The Asheville Regional Airport’s new terminal is slated to open in late June or early July 2025. The second phase of the $420 million AVL Forward airport improvements is expected to be completed by 2027.
• I-40 is expected to temporarily reopen on March 1, and will include one lane in each direction with reduced speeds of 40 m.p.h. The I-26 project has not been delayed and is expected to begin construction in 2026, with final completion anticipated by 2031.
• Most of the destruction along the Blue Ridge Parkway occurred in North Carolina, with the most significant damage concentrated near Linville Falls, where 40 of the total 57 landslides occurred. All sections in Virginia have reopened, and 100 miles of road in North Carolina with 11 in Asheville recently reopened. Road status and Helene project repairs can be found here.
• The Craggy Gardens Visitor Center and picnic area improvements supported by the tourism development authority’s Legacy Investment from Tourism (LIFT) fund are still moving forward.
• Explore Asheville has secured 120 national groups and sporting events, including SoCon, all of which will generate a $34 million economic impact in the first half of 2025.

The presentation from The Year Ahead can be found here. Attendees are encouraged to provide feedback on their experience here.