For Western North Carolinians who see the outdoors as a safe haven when life gets hard, perhaps the most distressing part of the pandemic’s early days was the domino-like succession of closures in the region’s parks, forests and other open spaces. 

When North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper gave the order to close bars and restaurants back on March 17, that was only the beginning of a series of blows the Coronavirus Pandemic would inflict upon the state’s leisure and hospitality industry. 

Things were looking bleak for the tourism industry — for all industries, really — as coronavirus shutdowns and stay-at-home orders fell into place this spring, but six months into the pandemic, the outlook for Jackson County’s biggest business is downright rosy. 

The Coronavirus Pandemic hasn’t stopped the Swain County Tourism Development Authority from having another record-setting year in occupancy tax revenue. 

During the summer and fall of 2019, room occupancy tax data collected by Haywood County’s Tourism Development Authority suggested that the county was on track for another strong year, perhaps its best ever. 

The Town of Franklin is one of the many local governments that saw a decrease in its occupancy tax revenue this year due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

A three-decade tradition, Waynesville’s Apple Harvest Festival, will indeed take place this year but as with all things coronavirus-related it will look very different than in any of those previous years. 

In a narrow vote Sept. 3, the Cherokee Tribal Council approved a Fiscal Year 2021 budget that reflects the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19. 

The affordable housing crisis in Western North Carolina isn’t anything new, but it is entering a dangerous new phase due to ever-increasing home values, limited supply and a red-hot real estate market that has refused to use the Coronavirus Pandemic as an excuse to cool down.

After years of languishing in the shadows of a shuttered amusement park, Maggie Valley’s west end is now seeing substantial commercial development resulting in several major new or renovated businesses.