Members of the Haywood County Tourism Development Association last week told one board member that they were tired of his constant complaining and criticism, which they defined as counter productive.

Dale Walksler, owner of the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum, frequently berates the TDA for not doing more to attract a new breed of tourist — namely bikers — to subsidize declining tourism in Maggie Valley. Walkser got so frustrated and upset at the meeting last week he walked out.

Walksler told the TDA board that “motorcycles were the only thing saving Maggie Valley right now.” He chastised the other TDA board members for not coming to the Honda Hoot, a motorcycle event that made a stop at his museum this month.

“I gave every single person here a personal invitation and not one of you bothered to come,” said Walksler.

Joetta Rinehart, a TDA board member and employee of the Lake Junaluska Assembly, said they had other jobs and couldn’t drop everything to come to his museum when he had an event. Alice Aumen, another TDA board member, told Walksler the event looked like a success as she drove by on her way to the airport, but she didn’t have time to stop.

Walksler told board members that since they didn’t come they must not care about tourism in Haywood County.

“Reciprocity in this community is hideous,” Walksler said, adding that the event attracted national television stations and magazines.

At one point Walkser drew a formula on the blackboard calculating the positive economic impact — pegged in the tens of thousands — his three-day motorcycle event had on the county, something the TDA members could have seen for themselves if they had bothered to come, he said.

“We are all supposed to be supporting each other,” Walkser said, adding, “I hope I’m not boring anyone.”

“Well, you’re boring me,” said James Carver, TDA member and Maggie restaurant owner. “There is no one in Haywood County that has supported your business more than me. Everyone in the Valley supports your business.” Carver asked Walksler if he remembered that he had fed Walksler and 27 Honda Hoot visitors for free that weekend.

Other TDA members who are lodging owners in Maggie Valley chimed in. They told Walkser that his museum is a wonderful attraction and they recommend it to all their guests, but they were tired of being lectured.

“If you want my input, fine. If you don’t, fine. I have people coming through to my museum, and I’m to the point where I don’t care if they stay in Haywood County or not,” Walkser said.

A board member sitting across from Walksler allegedly rolled her eyes, which Walksler said was the final straw. He gathered up his notebook and paperwork and walked out of the meeting

“Are you resigning?” one board member asked.

“No, I’m not resigning,” Walksler said and shut the door.

“There’s two people on this board who are self serving and he’s one of them,” said Dorie Pope, a TDA board member and employee of Smoky Mountain Retreat. “We are not supposed to be self-serving. We are supposed to be serving the whole community.”

Other board members grumbled about how much time has been wasted recently on things other than promoting tourism.

TDA members Wade Reece and Sonja Michaels were not at the meeting.

The TDA is currently in a state of flux, attempting to redefine its strategy to attract tourists. The tense meeting last week was intended as a two-hour workshop with a new marketing agency, the Tombras Group, hired this summer.

The agency was asked to come up with new marketing images and slogans for Haywood County. To help define a brand and hone marketing efforts, the agency will conduct a survey of 300 people who either visited or contemplated visiting Haywood County in the past year.

The agency was also instructed to assess all the newspapers, magazines, travel sections and brochures the TDA historically advertises in, and to keep the ones that are working and cut the ones that aren’t.

For now, the agency recommended trimming the advertising from nearly $200,000 to $100,000, keeping only the core publications in target states — primarily North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida — and in target markets — namely baby boomers and young families.

Walksler questioned the focus on the baby boomer and family markets.

“That is the same audience we are trying to market for the past four years that has been running away,” Walkser said. “Maybe we should look at what puts heads in beds in Maggie Valley.”

Walkser said bikers have great potential as a tourism market for Maggie Valley but are not being tapped.

“It (baby boomers) is your core market,” Lori Cogan, senior account executive with the Tombras Group said. “They are the ones who have all the money. They are the ones with disposable income and time to travel. It is your core strength.”

“That is the same audience that is coming in smaller numbers,” Walksler said. He told the TDA board they needed to do something different because what they have been doing isn’t working, witnessed by the tourism decline in Maggie Valley.

“Is this what the record actually reflects? That everyone is in disaster mode?” asked Alice Aumen, whose family owns Cataloochee Ranch. She said the tourism season has been great so far this year.

“I have every cabin filled this weekend with families,” said Betsy Boyd, a TDA member who owns Boyd Cabins.

Walkser said that’s because more than half of Aumen and Boyd’s customers are repeat business.

“You two folks have fabulous operations. That is not in the mainstream of what happens in this community,” said Walkser.

Aumen said TDA can’t be responsible for filling every hotel room, that lodging owners need to make an effort. Two other TDA members said their business was doing fine this summer, too.

Scotty Ellis, TDA director, said she had heard from a handful of hotel owners that “they were hurting this season” but did not know if it was widespread.

Discussion soon turned to theories as to why some Maggie Valley lodging owners have seen business drop while others haven’t.

“I think what has happened over the years is we had motels full, full, full. Now all of a sudden, we have real estate companies renting houses. One real estate company has 400 rental houses. So that’s a 400-room hotel or motel,” Carver said. “They (the tourists) are here but they are not staying in the hotel.”

Boyd said the classic Maggie tourists of the 1970s and 1980s were families of furniture and textile mill workers who filled the budget hotels that line Maggie Valley. Those mill jobs went overseas and those blue-collar families are not taking weeklong vacations anymore, Boyd said.

Others cited the loss of Ghost Town.

Walkser said that is exactly the reason the TDA should be paying more attention to “emerging markets,” like motorcycles, which have already begun to fill the void and should be capitalized on.

Haywood County commissioners appoint all TDA board members. Three seats are up for appointment this December for people who work in the lodging business or tourism industry.s