Smokies spenders pump billions into local economies
A new National Park Service report shows that 13,297,647 visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2023 spent $2.2 billion in communities near the park. That spending supported 33,748 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $3.4 billion.
Parkway visitation, spending grows
Visitors to one of the country’s most unique national park units pumped nearly $1.4 billion into local economies in 2023, continuing a growing trend that has powered rural Western North Carolina’s economy over the past decade.
Sylva approves Economic Development Advisory Committee
Last week, the Sylva Town Board approved rules and procedures for the new Economic Development Advisory Committee, an advisory committee to the Economic Development Director and to the Sylva Town Board of Commissioners.
Haywood TDA’s destination master plan focuses on the future
Tourism remains a critically important component of Western North Carolina’s economy. To ensure it remains strong well into the future, the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority is fine-tuning a forthcoming destination master plan that focuses on underutilized assets and what visitors seem to really want — authenticity.
Whose future? Consultant report ignores Haywood’s working class
Consultants finally delivered to Haywood County commissioners a report on the results of a secretive, long-awaited “listening post exercise” meant to chart Haywood County’s economic development vision — revealing in the process that there was no input from average working-class residents, an omission that may prompt some to question the applicability of the report’s findings despite the project’s tagline of “stronger together.”
‘A two-generation workforce issue’: Child care availability impeding economic development
Stakeholders around Western North Carolina recognize the end of COVID-era child care stabilization funding and the broader lack of available child care resources as a multilayered impediment to economic development.
Afterlife: Tentative mill deal provides a peek at what could be next
On May 24, 2023, Canton Mayor Pro Tem Gail Mull sat on a bench in Sorrels Street Park, waiting to hear the shrill shriek of the steam whistle at Pactiv Evergreen’s century-old paper mill at the heart of town blow for the last time.
Change is coming, and things will change
What happens when the those with the most chips in the game only have a partial stake in it?
In other words, what does a community lose when most of the very large businesses are owned by absentee or corporate entities whose main goal is make money but have little interest in making that place a better place to live?
One year later, Canton displays remarkable progress
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
— Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Courting disloyalty: New program encourages shoppers to patronize Waynesville businesses
The disloyalty card is here and it’s, in a sense, exactly what it sounds like.
