After handing out around $140,000 in grants for festivals and tourism-related initiatives last week, members of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority said the decision-making process was both arbitrary and subjective.

The nine-member TDA board aimed to apply the litmus test of whether the grants would immediately result in overnight tourists — a credo known as “heads in beds” — but said they lacked statistical data and instead had to rely on a certain degree of “gut instinct.”

Maggie Valley fared far better than downtown Waynesville, reaping more than twice as much for festivals and two-and-a-half times more for visitor center operations and promotions than Waynesville. Seven of the nine board members on the TDA run businesses in the Maggie Valley area while there are no downtown Waynesville business owners on the TDA.

TDA board members individually ranked each grant application on a scale of 0 to 5 based on whether they thought it generated overnight tourists. TDA board members applied the litmus test to each grant application with varying degrees of scrutiny, applying it rigorously in some cases and loosely in others.

For example, Waynesville and Maggie both applied for grants for promotional brochures. TDA board member Sonja Michaels, a Maggie Valley lodging owner, gave the Maggie brochure a top rank of 5 and Waynesville’s brochure a 0. Wade Reece, owner of Quality Inn in Maggie Valley, also gave Maggie’s brochure a top rank of 5, but Waynesville’s brochure a 2.

The same trend occurred in festival rankings as well. James Carver, a Maggie Chamber board member, gave the Trout Festival held in Maggie a top rank of 5, but gave Waynesville’s International Festival Day, which attracts more than 15,000 people, a score of 0.

Reeling them in

When discussing a grant application for downtown Waynesville’s A Night Before Christmas event, some TDA board members said it is not clear whether tourists come here specifically to attend that event. The festivity, held on two weekends in December, features costumed carolers, hayrides, Santa, hot cider, bands and luminaries lining the sidewalks.

“I know that all 30 of our rooms are booked the entire Christmas season,” said Dorie Pope, TDA board member who works at Smoky Mountain Retreat in Maggie Valley.

“But the question is: is their purpose for being here to attend the Night Before Christmas?” asked Dale Walksler, TDA board member and owner of Wheels Through Time museum in Maggie.

“That’s statistical data we don’t have,” said Scotty Ellis, TDA director.

“So we are just basing our gut feeling on whether Night Before Christmas puts heads in beds?” Walksler asked.

Ultimately, the TDA board members decided tourists don’t come here specifically for the event. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has featured Night Before Christmas in its travel section, comparing it to a night of “shopping in a Norman Rockwell painting.”

Waynesville’s Art After Dark gallery strolls didn’t pass the heads in beds test either. The first Friday of the month, art galleries in downtown Waynesville serve hors d’oeuvres and wine and feature different artists who are on hand to talk about their work and do demonstrations. TDA board members decided tourists don’t come here just for that and gave the event no money.

This litmus test was applied loosely or not at all with other grants, however. The Maggie Valley Chamber of Commerce got $3,000 to pay a woman to dress up in a Miss Maggie costume and walk up and down the sidewalk waving to cars. No one asked whether tourists come here specifically to see Miss Maggie wave at them from the side of the road.

The Maggie Valley Chamber of Commerce got $2,500 for its annual fireworks show with no discussion of whether tourists come here specifically to see the fireworks.

Walksler, the champion of posing the litmus test question, did challenge the Trout Festival, an event put on by the Maggie chamber.

“I’m having a hard time believing the Trout Festival actually puts heads in beds. I believe that’s a local event,” said Walksler.

It was defended by several TDA members who are active with the Maggie Valley chamber.

“The problem with the Trout Festival is there is not a lot of money to put it on with,” Reece said.

Walksler questioned whether not having enough money to put on a festival without TDA support is part of the litmus test. The Trout Festival got its full request of $1,000. In fact, the Maggie Valley Chamber is the only entity that got 100 percent of all the funding it requested plus some extra.

Weaning versus nurturing

When scrutinizing some grant applications, the TDA board members decided to cut the funding compared to last year, citing a need to wean successful events and use the money to help fledgling events that hold promise.

“Remember, we’re trying to wean them, we’re trying to wean them,” Reece said in reference to a couple of events in the Waynesville area.

Canton’s Mater Festival, now in its second year, got $1,000 compared to the $2,000 it got last year. TDA board members said they needed to start weaning it.

Maggie Valley’s WNC BBQ festival, also in its second year, got all $3,000 it asked for. The WNC BBQ festival claimed 3,000 attendees last year, a number easily topped by the Mater Festival.

The Maggie Valley Moonlight Race, a Maggie chamber event, got its full request of $2,000 with no discussion of weaning. The event is in its 27th year.

Meanwhile, new events, like a Haywood County Open Art Studio weekend — where tourists studio hop around the county on a self-guided auto-tour of participating artists — was voted down because they were new and not proven to be a good use of money. Another new event, Milling Around Town Trade Days, a town-wide flea market and antique fair proposed in Canton, got no money.

Another new event — a Cold Mountain Heritage Tour weekend — was given only $500 instead of the $1,000 they requested.

Meanwhile, Vettes in the Valley, a new event featuring a Corvette Rally, got all $2,500 it requested. Reece’s company, Smoky Events, is putting on the event. Reece abstained from voting on whether to fund his own event.

Reece, owner of Quality Inn, is charging other hotel owners a referral fee if they want him to direct the Corvette tourists their way. Dorie Pope, TDA member and lodging owner, questioned the referral fee.

“There’s talk out there as to whether you would be representing all,” Scotty Ellis, TDA director, told Reece.

Reece said the referral fee is to help him recuperate out-of-pocket costs incurred for advertising the event.

“I’ve spent over $40,000 in advertising already,” Reece said. “I’m already full without the event. So I won’t get my money back. I’m just trying to help the Valley.”

A significant portion of the advertising for the event is being done in Reece’s own magazine, Smoky Mountain Living.