Story by Annie Ham
Photos by Sophie Watson
BOONE, N.C. – Western North Carolina is pushing full steam ahead this winter tourism season, welcoming visitors back after months of recovery from Category 4 Hurricane Helene.
Among the crowds visiting Boone over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend was a Boy Scout troop from central North Carolina, chaperoned by Clayton resident Jonathan Barnes.
The troop supported the area in the direct aftermath of the hurricane this past September by delivering supplies to Asheville a few months before. But this time around, Barnes and the young scouts came out to have some fun on the slopes of Appalachian Ski Mtn. in Watauga County – the sense of normalcy business locals are calling for in the area.
Barnes and his troop stayed at an Airbnb, filled up at a gas station in Yadkinville, shopped at a local grocery store and skied at a resort raising money for the community. He coined these actions “unintentional contributions” to local business.
Unintentional, yet impactful.
In the wake of Hurricane Helene, tourism is a vital lifeline for western North Carolina. In a small survey conducted in December 2024 by the Watauga County Economic Development Commission, 65% of respondents said their business failed to meet revenue expectations for November 2024 – 50% reported a November year-over-year loss of 0-25%.
Visitors to the area are contributing to what co-owner of Appalachian Ski Mtn., Brenda Speckmann, describes as a snowball effect. Every ski season, the trend starts with recreational tourist hot spots booking up. The next to be positively impacted: restaurants and stores.
“We’ve been blessed with a lot of cold weather and snow,” Speckmann said. “So, when we have a good winter, then that affects all the local businesses in the local economy.”
In a statement from Sept. 28, 2024, – just a day after the worst of the storm – David Jackson, president of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce, thanked people for their thoughts and prayers in a Chamber News post, but he urged them to stay home.
“Our community is usually the first to welcome others,” Jackson wrote. “THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO VISIT.”
A month later the message shifted. Jackson invited tourists back to the region, this time requesting they be mindful with their visits – shop and eat locally but leave space for progress in places that are still recovering.
Neighbors helping neighbors
Although many towns like Black Mountain and Asheville are still in recovery mode post-hurricane, Emily Neely, director of marketing and public relations for the municipal department of tourism, Explore Boone, said there is a perception that the mountains were completely destroyed.
Boone is one area that was able to bounce back quickly.
“We got right back in the office as areas started reopening, like Blowing Rock and Boone proper, to let people know to please come back and support these small businesses even if you couldn’t stay overnight,” Neely said.
While coverage of western North Carolina has decreased as communities have slowly recovered, many local business owners and families faced devastation that could take years to repair.
Others are simply trying to recover from months of slowed business in the community-based tourist destination, Neely said.
Despite an expected $250,000 loss in sales across multiple bakery and shop locations, Mindy Coatney, co-owner of Stick Boy Bread Co., said they were able to stay afloat and partially operational, their main bakery maintaining power unlike many others.
“We just saw that a lot of businesses were kind of unequally impacted,” Coatney said.
The bakery made bread and soup to give out to those in need and set up stations across town to provide free morning coffee for locals.
Most recently, Stick Boy sold a special coffee roast called “Resilient” that raised $24,000 in funds to go toward individual families and other local hurricane relief efforts. Another Coatney business, Booneshine Brewing Co., collaborated with other breweries in town to create a beer called “Hello from the Holler,” raising over $20,000 for the community.
“We were okay when many weren’t”
About 35 years ago, Hurricane Hugo created a mudslide on the Appalachain Ski Mtn. property that cost thousands of dollars to repair. This time around, the ski mountain was lucky to be amongst the handful of similar businesses least affected by Hurricane Helene.
That meant Speckmann and her team could focus on helping neighbors in need. The mountains operation crew went to work repairing culverts, ditches and drainage issues in the two weeks following the devastation. The resorts’ annual ski and snowboard pre-season sale was also combined with a fundraiser for a beloved family in town who lost their home to the hurricane.
Sugar Mountain Resort, a nearby ski destination in Avery County, faced more damage including mudslides, fallen trees and conditions that damaged pavement and several buildings.
However, this Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Sugar Mountain’s slopes were buzzing with activity. Vika Romanovskaia, a skier from Atlanta, returned for her third annual trip to Sugar Mountain this January. Despite knowing only a little about Hurricane Helene, Romanovskaia said everything was operating just as always – this time busier than her previous visits.
Daniel O’Neill, Airbnb owner near the top of Sugar Mountain, said he was impressed and relieved by the resort’s quick recovery. His Airbnb has had a handful of bookings since his long-term renter – a woman whose apartment was damaged in the storm – left in November.
“It was worrisome when the hurricane hit,” he said. “Years of savings plus all the time away from my wife and kids to get it (the Airbnb) ready was a risk. In the end though, we were okay when many weren’t.”
Empowering local heroes
Today, Appalachian Ski Mtn. continues to support those still recovering from Hurricane Helene through a donation opportunity available during the booking process. Speckmann said the benefit of donating to western North Carolina through local organizations is their firsthand awareness of who needs the most assistance.
Resources like Explore Boone continue to promote Watauga and Avery counties as fun destinations, but Neely said including a volunteer opportunity in a vacation to Boone or surrounding areas is encouraged.
“We really appreciate folks still thinking about us,” she said.
Kristen and Jerrod McConnell from Apex are living examples of this support.
During a recent weekend trip to Appalachian Ski Mtn., the couple finally revisited their favorite local businesses like Ashe County Cheese and Mountain Running Company after having only been able to support from afar after the hurricane.
“We’ve been up here for years, and it’s just the greatest community,” Jerrod McConnell said. “And if you don’t support it, they can’t be.”
