Shashi Jayanthi and her family could care less what mountain town or county they vacationed in last weekend. They were looking for a pseudo-wilderness getaway within driving distance of their Columbia, S.C., home.

“We wanted to go to the Smoky Mountains and have the outdoor experience. It is a different kind of fun,” said Jayanthi, who settled on a two-night log cabin rental in Maggie Valley. Playing in a creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the highlight for her two small children. For Jayanthi, it was buying molasses and apple cider at the roadside stand on Soco Road above Maggie Valley.

Meanwhile, Crystal Kuhn, an 18-year-old from Knoxville, didn’t leave her hotel all weekend. She was among dozens of Mary Kay make-up representatives who came to a marketing conference held at the Quality Inn in Maggie Valley.

“We had sessions all day and parties pretty much all night,” Kuhn said.

And Joanne Harbin from Mobile, Ala., landed in Maggie Valley by accident. She had reservations for a lodge at Lake Lure, but the reservations had been written down for the wrong weekend and when they showed up, there were no rooms left.

“We just started riding and rode and found this place,” Harbin said, relaxing on bench outside Laurel Park Inn.

Interviews conducted with more than 30 tourist parties in Maggie Valley and Waynesville last Sunday revealed the seemingly haphazard nature of people’s vacation habits. The random factor is the top challenge in marketing the region to travelers, and consequently comprises the bulk of controversy among those in charge of luring tourists.

Who the tourists are and why they come has dominated wrangling on the Haywood County Tourism Development Association. The TDA controls about $600,000 generated by a 3 percent tax on overnight accommodations. The money must be spent promoting tourism in Haywood County. But a battle over the best use of the money is as old as the room tax itself, and ultimately hinges on who the tourists are and why they come here. But the answer is elusive.

A surprising number of tourists interviewed over the weekend had no clue where they would stay before arriving.

“We came up at the last minute to see the leaves,” said Carol Cobb from Charleston. “We wanted to get away from it all and get away from the stress.”

Donald and Deborah Wright had been poking along the Blue Ridge Parkway for several days and got off in Maggie Valley, where they stumbled into a roadside arts and crafts festival.

“We would have kept going, but now we might stay the night,” said Deborah Wright, 51. Her husband, meanwhile, wanted directions to Fontana Dam.

Or take Ashley Bradford, 26, of Lewisville, N.C., for example. She had no particular destination in mind beyond the mountains when she went online looking for a bed and breakfast for her and her husband’s anniversary weekend. She picked out the Chalet Inn in Jackson County, but a Sunday antiquing adventure landed them in Waynesville most of the day.

Carol Bishop of Tampa, Fla., summed up her vacation itinerary quite succinctly.

“We’re winging it,” said Bishop, 49, who had booked a cabin in Maggie for the week for her family. Her first mission was finding a real pumpkin patch where she could take her 5-year-old twins.

Maggie Valley’s long reputation as a tourist destination is one of its best assets. Several tourists interviewed had specifically sought accommodations in Maggie Valley because they’d vacationed there in the past, often as children during an era when the now-defunct Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park raked in up to 300,000 tourists from across the southeast each summer.

Such was the case with Terry and Margerie Meadows of Sarasota, Fla. Once in Maggie Valley, Margerie’s favorite activity was staring at the mountain across the road from her hotel balcony.

“I like it right here, just enjoying the view,” said Meadows, 40.

If there was a unifying factor that lured tourists here, it was scenic beauty coupled with downtime.

“We try to come here every year this time of year to relax. It’s quiet and peaceful,” said Ronnie Spell, 53, of Charleston, S.C.