<< Back 7/10/02 July 4 provides dose of optimism in WNC SMN So far so good. That’s the word from tourist officials after an extremely busy July 4 weekend. “Absolutely incredible,” said Linda Nash, executive director of the Maggie Valley Visitors and Convention Bureau. “There was not a room in the valley. We are averaging 200 visits a day to the Visitors Center, which will set a new record if it continues.” The evidence was all around, from crowded sidewalks on downtown streets to busy roads and well-attended festivals. “So far we’ve just heard anecdotally from people, but it seems the July 4 week started out pretty strong,” said Marla Tambellini, the assistant vice president for the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau. After July 4 comes a month of festivals including Folkmoot USA and Bele Chere, both expected to bring tens of thousands of visitors to WNC. While individual businesses can see immediately how their numbers compared to last year, official figures on what is happening in the state’s $12 billion hospitality industry can take months to compile. One number commonly used to gauge the travel season in WNC is the number of hotel rooms sold. Most counties charge a room tax and therefore can track whether they are getting more dollars than they did last year from hotel room stays. In Haywood County, overall room tax collections are down 1 percent for the year. However, the fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30, so this current year’s figures reflect the downturn after Sept. 11 — October 2000 was down 7 percent, November 2000 was down 4 percent — and a warm winter with not as many skiers. However, since spring numbers have rebounded. March was up 10 percent, April down 5 percent and then May up again by 6 percent. In Swain County, chamber of commerce Executive Director Richard Shaddellee said travel numbers continue to go up. Swain has benefitted from the burgeoning whitewater industry, Harrah’s Casino and its proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “You know, we’ve increased every year since we enacted the room tax, and it’s given us more and more money to advertise the county,” said Shaddellee. Tambellini said Buncombe County uses gross hotel sales as a gauge of recent tourism activity rather than room tax collections. Since some hoteliers are delinquent and then pay their tax in a lump sum, the monthly room tax collection figures are not as accurate, she said. In May, visitors spent $10.2 million on hotel rooms in Buncombe, while in May 2001 they spent $8.58 million. That’s an 18.8-percent hike, and in April there was a 27.6 percent hike. For the fiscal year Buncombe numbers are up 14 percent. “July and October are always the biggest months, so what happens in the next few weeks will in many ways define the season,” said Tambellini. The mountains may be benefitting at the expense of the beach. An Associated Press story reported that hotels at the coast experienced a slower than usual July 4 weekend, with many tourists citing the lingering heat wave as one reason they headed west instead of east.