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Diversity ‘passport’ seeks to boost Haywood businesses

People from outside the region will soon have a new reason — dozens of them, actually — to visit Haywood County. Cory Vaillancourt photo

A “community passport” program with the goal of increasing tourist visits and overnight stays by spotlighting businesses that pledge to fight racism, prejudice and discrimination will roll out in September, and the organization charged with implementing the program is looking to spread the word.

“I thought about this because, one, it would bring new people into the community and two, diversity is a big attraction for tourists,” said Tera McIntosh, owner of Misfit Mountain animal rescue in Clyde and a key organizer of Haywood County’s historic first Pride celebration this past June.

Community passport programs are not a new idea in the marketing world. In 1986, the Eastern National Parks Association started just such a program to help travelers learn more about National Parks. Visitors collect a stamp or sticker at each park, adding them to a book that ultimately becomes both a pleasant reminder of trips past and an enduring encouragement to complete their collection by visiting parks and buying stickers they don’t yet have. Major League Baseball has a similar program for its ballparks.

Locally, a merchants association in Canton has a passport program of its own, encouraging foot traffic to downtown businesses, and a group of Waynesville businesses have created the somewhat cheeky “disloyalty card” that does basically the same thing.

The new countywide program, first of its kind, is called the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) Passport. Participation is strictly voluntary and is open to brick-and-mortar Haywood County businesses involved in the hospitality industry, including retail and tourism. Businesses without physical locations can still participate in the initiative through a separate diversity business directory program.

After paying a small application fee, interested businesses will review and sign a diversity pledge. The pledge states that businesses will make diversity, equity and inclusion a priority for visitors, residents and workers while examining their own internal biases and potential bias in their workplace.

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“We understand that each business who comes forward and wants to be a part of this might be on a different level in their learning, so we thought rather than just giving them this diversity pledge and having them sign it, every business will sign in-person, face to face with a member of the team, instead of just sending over a document that they’ll look over electronically, sign and not care about. So we meet with them face to face,” McIntosh said. “We hold them accountable.”

Participating businesses will be rewarded with a window sticker to display as well as a listing in the business directory or passport.

“That says, ‘Hey, we’re a safe space. You can come here and know we have your back,’” McIntosh said. “The mountains are for all.”

The application deadline is rapidly approaching so the physical passports can be printed and made available for free to people who want to support local businesses and get a jump on their stamp collection by Sept. 1.

McIntosh said she pursued a partnership with Axe & Awl Leatherworks to create leather covers for the passports, giving them a sense of durability and style. They’ll be distributed for free at participating locations to visitors who want them, while supplies last.

Those who pick up the passports will find unique perks and rewards at each participating business — listed on the passport program website — and, with a purchase, receive a stamp noting their visit.

Visitors who check out 25 or more businesses will get a free tee shirt noting their accomplishment.

The passport program was initially funded by a $10,000 grant from the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority during its most recent grant cycle.

The TDA is the statutory authority charged with administering the county’s 4% room occupancy tax, which is paid overwhelmingly by visitors utilizing lodging accommodations in the county — not local taxpayers. Its board, which contains members appointed both by local governments and board-appointed business owners involved in tourism, accepts grant applications cyclically and votes as a body on how to spend the money. The guardrails on that spending limit it to being used for things that will promote tourism, especially overnight stays.

Historically, the effect of the tourism industry on Haywood County’s economy cannot be understated, especially in the wake of the closing of one of the county’s largest employers in Canton last summer.

Since enabling legislation for room occupancy taxes was passed by the General Assembly in the mid-1980s, revenues in Haywood County grew slowly until COVID, when a surge of visitors sought out the Great Smoky Mountains to escape from crowded urban areas.

Of late, revenue has begun to level off some, but for the past three years, it has hovered right around $3 million each year.

In addition to the passport program, the TDA awarded 17 other organizations just over $250,000 in total, with the largest grant going to the Town of Maggie Valley ($53,900) for the annual ice festival. The Downtown Waynesville Commission received grants for Appalachian Heritage Weekend ($30,000) and a marketing campaign ($28,500).

The $255,875 in grants represents roughly 8% of the TDA’s total revenues last year.

The passport program has the potential to draw substantial interest from the LGBTQIA+ community across the region, state and country, and if it’s anything like the recent Pride festival — Frog Level merchants reported substantial income from the one-day event — local businesses could see a nice bump in their bottom line from the passport program.

“I’ve worked with several passport programs,” said TDA Executive Director Corrina Ruffieux. “Overall, the intent of any passport program is to raise awareness of a variety of related or unrelated businesses, whatever the theme of the passport is, and to drive business, whether it’s local business or visitor business, to those entities that are highlighted on the passport.”

In her previous experience, Ruffieux said, there was a “tasting trail” in Williamsburg, Virginia, for purveyors and consumers of alcoholic beverages. In Elizabeth City, her most recent place of employment before coming to Haywood County, Ruffieux said there was another lighthearted passport program during the COVID era specifically for people named “Elizabeth.”

“Any business that wanted to participate, they could do something as little as 10% off if you walked in and said, ‘Hi, my name is Elizabeth,’ and it went phenomenally well,” she said. “There’s so many different ways to pull these themed passports together so we’re thrilled to be able to help support a new one for Haywood County that is countywide, and any business that is interested in participating can reach out to the organizers and sign up.”

For more information on the IDEA Passport Program, visit ideahaywood.comcom.

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The first countywide community passport program spotlighting Haywood County businesses with a commitment to diversity kicks off in September, just in time for leaf season. If you’re a business owner that would like to enroll in the IDEA passport program — or, if you’re a visitor or local who wants to get busy collecting stamps by supporting local businesses — visit ideahaywood.com before Aug. 15.

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