Elizabethton/Carter County Chamber of Commerce sees tourism revenue grow

ELIZABETHTON — The goal of the Elizabethton/Carter County Chamber of Commerce has always been to help the communities of Carter County to grow and prosper. One way to do that was to promote tourism. That has been important as far back as the post Civil War era. That was when Gen. John T. Wilder built his Cloudland Hotel at 6,000 feet atop Roan Mountain and began advertising the hotel's healthy climate during the hot, steamy summers along the Eastern Seaboard.The chamber has continued to follow Wilder's path, promoting Carter County's scenic beauty and outdoor recreation. It has added the county's tradition of being part the new nation's first frontier in the 1770s-1780s.A couple of months ago, the chamber was concerned that it might be moving away from its traditional role of promoting tourism. The reason was not because there was a decline in the tourism business in the county. The reason was that tourism was continuing to prosper and grow. That led some county leaders to wonder if the growing tax revenue coming from tourism could be better used to benefit the county.A proposal was made in the Carter County Commission in December to not renew the contract by which the proceeds of the county's hotel and motel tax is distributed solely to the chamber, to be used exclusively for the promotion of tourism in Carter County.The final result was that the contract to the chamber was changed to make it a single-year extension. The part of the contract was eliminated that required the county to give prior notice in the event the contract was not going to be renewed next time.One thing that was not answered during the debate was what did the county get from investing all of its hotel and motel tax revenue with the chamber. Luke Freeman, director of tourism for the chamber, can answer the question.Just like General Wilder once used advertising in periodicals to attract people to his Roan Mountain hotel, so Freeman advertises to attract people from other parts of the country to visit Carter County. The difference is that nowadays there are very specific magazines that Freeman can use to very narrowly target the specific groups. In Freeman's case, he advertises in periodicals which focus on fishing to attract those anglers who come to rivers like the Doe, the Watauga, and the Laurel Fork, to fly fish for trout.Another group is the young family audience. That includes parents and young children who would be attracted to outdoor recreation. They want to spend vacations at places where they can hike and swim, bike and visit mountain tops. Carter County's Watauga Lake, Roan Highlands, kayaking the Watauga River, answer that niche. Hopefully, the expanded Tweetsie Trail and Hampton Mountain Bike Trails will be a future attraction.The hotel and motel tax revenue is also used to help promoters of outdoor events make those events more attractive. The Chamber's Tourism Department sponsors a variety of those events, including the Rhododendron Festival in Roan Mountain, the Covered Bridge Days in Elizabethton, and the Music and Miles Half Marathon. One event that has recently moved to Carter County from its former base in Johnson City is the Carter County Omnium, which attracts world class bicycle racers for a challenging series of events over a weekend in early June.Are the promotions working? Data compiled by state shows steady growth of tourism in Carter County over the past few years, even with the impact of the Covid Pandemic. The bottom line is that there has been growth in the number of visitors in recent years. The number of day visitors to Carter County during a year has grown from 183,783 visits in 2019 top 199,148 in the latest completed totals, which is 2023. The number of overnight visits have been even more impressive, growing from 91,079 in 2019 to 139,748 in 2023.Freeman answered the question of how do these visits help the county by saying that visitor spending produces state and local tax collections, reducing the tax burden on residents to support infrastructure, education, health, and safety services. Local tax collections from visitor spending in to Carter County has grown from $1,253,000 for day visits in 2020 to $1,924,900 in 2023.The bottom line for each Carter County household is that in 2023 visitors to Carter County generated $206 in tax savings through state and local tax collections. That was money that Carter County households did not have to pay in taxes.Of course, the money spent in Carter County by these visits does more than provide tax revenue. The visits provide direct economic impact to the local economy. In 2023, this spending from visits amounted to $56,811,300. That money funded 376 jobs in Carter County, with labor income of $11,237,500.So, the numbers show that the Elizabethton Chamber of Commerce has seen success in its traditional mission of helping Carter County communities grown and prosper through the efforts of its tourism department.