Both Mitchell and Yancey counties showed a significant increase in tourism this past year. While the Covid-19 pandemic has affected many tourism related businesses, especially lodging, attraction and restaurant establishments, Mitchell County’s receipts from occupancy taxes showed a substantial increase between 2019-20 and 2020-21. Occupancy tax is collected by law at a rate of 3% on each night’s lodging in Mitchell County whether at a hotel, motel, bed and breakfast or Airbnb/VRBO type vacation rental establishment. These funds are remitted to the Mitchell County Finance office which records them and then submits them to the Mitchell County Chamber to be used in the promotion and marketing of Mitchell County.
Based on the occupancy tax records comparing the 2019-20 year to the 2020-21year, Mitchell County saw a 71% increase in occupancy tax receipts. This increase was noted by many local lodging, restaurant and attraction establishments stating it was the best year they had in many years. In early 2020, Covid-19 mandates forced the closure of many of the local tourism businesses and projections were made for a 30-40% loss for the coming tourism year. “We were very concerned for our local businesses,” said Patti Jensen, Director, Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce, “and we began to look closely at what we could do to help navigate the unsettling times to help our businesses.”
The Mitchell County Chamber uses many types of marketing tools to promote Mitchell County and the local businesses. “Our marketing efforts look at our target demographics and tune our marketing agenda to get the most return from the amount of marketing funds we have,” said Jensen. “When Covid-19 hit, many areas, including the state’s marketing office began to pull their advertising and discontinue their marketing efforts. “It was our belief that ceasing our marketing efforts was not the answer for our county or our businesses,” said Jensen. “Our businesses needed us to continue to do everything we could to help them.” The Chamber regrouped their marketing plan and targeted those areas within a 2 hour drive time while also changing the imagery of the marketing elements to include the beautiful remote area we live in. “The weekly research we were receiving from the state’s tourism office indicated that traveler’s sentiments were changing due to the pandemic and their travel plans were changing with them. They were focusing on traveling to areas close to home and to places that were not crowded,” said Jensen. “Mitchell County had so much to offer those who still wanted to travel to a safe beautiful area, but wanted to travel by car and stay close to home.”
“Our tourism and visitation in 2020-21 was the largest percentage increase we have ever seen, “said Jensen. “It was encouraging to see this response to the marketing that we and our local businesses have been doing over the last few years to attract more visitors to our area and to the shift we made in our marketing due to Covid-19.”
“2020 was a challenging one for our tourism businesses as well as all of our small businesses,” said Jensen, “however we were encouraged by the increased numbers we saw and the travel data for 2021 is looking positive as well,” said Jensen. “Our hats are off to the tireless work of the staff and management of our local tourism businesses who have been weathering this storm for almost two years and continue to serve their guests and customers with warm Mitchell County hospitality.”
According to the Yancey County Chamber, the 2020 County Economic Impact numbers from the state are in and Yancey County had the 2nd largest percent increase in the state, only being beaten to 1st place by Greene County whose percentage increase was only impressive because their revenue from visitors spending was so low. In 2020, Yancey County had an increase of 16.4% in visitor spending over 2019.
