In the quest to attract travelers to Haywood County, the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority has adopted a narrow definition of tourists: only those who stay in hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts or rental cabins.

These tourists pay a 3 percent room tax on overnight lodging, generating some $600,000 a year for tourism promotion. When spending those dollars, TDA members base their decision on one litmus test above all else — will it generate “heads on beds?” Their ultimate mission is not attracting restaurant patrons, museum-goers, golfers, skiers, or arts and crafts purveyors, but solely those booking overnight stays.

That means tourists like Matthew Hembree, 25, and his buddy from Greenville, S.C., who spent their weekend in the mountains camping aren’t worth recruiting.

“We decided to get out of Greenville for the weekend, get away from work,” Hembree said.

When it comes to fly-fishing stores and camping outfitters, Hembree and his friend are an integral part of the tourism economy. But since Hembree didn’t stay in a hotel, he’s not the type of tourist the TDA is willing to spend money seeking.

The same goes for Jack and Charlene Shaw of Florida, who come to Haywood County several times a year. They golf at Lake Junaluska Golf Course and Maggie Valley Country Club, and love Folkmoot and love the July 4th fireworks.

“We come up here to relax,” said Jack Shaw, who was gassing up at Teague’s Exxon in Maggie on Sunday, Oct. 23. “God has made beautiful country and we want to see it.” But since they stay in their motor coach at an RV campground, they don’t register on the TDA’s radar.

Nor does Jean Hammonds, who was walking down Main Street in Waynesville Sunday saddled with shopping bags. She was visiting her sister in Sevierville, Tenn., and they both took a day trip to Waynesville.

“Being from Miami, I don’t get to see this. It is wonderful,” Hammonds said.

Ray Draper, 48, spent his Sunday trying out benches on Main Street in Waynesville while his wife shopped.

“We like to come up and look at the leaves and breathe the mountain air and ooohh and aaahh. When we come up here, this is always one of the stops. It’s a quaint place,” Draper said of downtown Waynesville.

But alas, Draper is no head in a bed. He is a second-home owner in Bryson City. Second-home owners in neighboring counties — while some of the biggest supporters of Haywood County’s tourism-related businesses — don’t book rooms and aren’t worth marketing to, at least not with room tax dollars administered by the TDA board.

Mike Clarke detoured his party through Maggie Valley en route from Indianapolis to Wilmington to visit Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum last weekend. After seeing a segment about the museum on television last year, he made a mental note to visit it if at all possible.

“We didn’t really care about stopping the night, we just wanted to see the museum,” said Clarke.

Ironically, TDA does spend money marketing the very things these travelers were seeking. TDA helps fund promotions for Folkmoot and July 4 fireworks, along with brochures on downtown Waynesville and magazine ads on Wheels Through Time museum. But the fact these attracted tourists who ultimately didn’t pay for a room here was a byproduct, not a goal.

Seven of the nine TDA members operate accommodation businesses. Not a TDA meeting goes by without someone on the board questioning whether an initiative at hand is generating “heads in beds.” The mantra has become so pervasive that some TDA members think it is part of the state legislation that enacted the room tax back in 1983. At meetings, they have cited a legal mandate to ensure that TDA funds are properly used promoting “heads on beds.”

But the legislation simply requires the room tax money to go toward tourism promotion, a vague mission that could be interpreted numerous ways.

“The Authority may expend these funds only to further the development of travel, tourism and conventions in the county through state, national and international advertising and promotion,” the law states.

Wade Reece, a TDA board member and manager of Quality Inn in Maggie Valley, said the TDA has more of an obligation to the lodging industry than other sectors of the tourism industry.

“It is time the board stepped up and became accountable for all the money being given to it by the hotels and motels in the county,” said Reece. While the tourists are the ones who fork over the extra 3 percent tax — not the hotels and motels themselves — Reece claimed he could charge 3 percent more if it weren’t for that tax.