Should Tourists Return to Asheville?

01.11.2024 - 10:57 / nytimes.com / Cooper

A little more than a month after the remnants of Hurricane Helene killed residents, destroyed homes and businesses, and felled thousands of trees in western North Carolina, workers at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., got a round of applause Wednesday when they stood a tree up — a 28-foot Fraser fir that will be one of 57 Christmas trees displayed this holiday season in the estate’s 19th-century mansion.

The Biltmore, a major driver of tourism to the area, and other local travel businesses are nervously waiting to see how many visitors will come to tour the house and grounds once the property reopens Saturday — and help rejuvenate an important sector of the regional economy that Helene knocked flat.

“That’s going to help,” said Vince Charbonneau, managing partner of the local Twisted Laurel Restaurant Group, which owns a brewery, a catering business and two restaurants. “That’s a signal for people outside the city that it’s OK to come back.”

Government officials, including Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, asked prospective visitors to stay away from Asheville and western North Carolina in the days immediately after Helene. The storm in North Carolina killed 101 people, according to the most recent count from the state’s health department, and also heavily damaged roads, knocked out Asheville’s water system and forced the closure of most businesses and attractions.

The official guidance about visiting changed to proceed with caution in the middle of October, typically one of the region’s most lucrative months for travel-related businesses with visitors flooding in to see fall colors. Those businesses and workers typically rely on October profits and wages to bank a financial cushion ahead of the lean first quarter of the following year.