County sees bump in visitors

Billing the county as “the trailhead of Western North Carolina,” the Burke County Tourism Development Authority (BCTDA) is attracting more visitors with its advertising efforts.

More people have entered the visitor center in Morganton month-to-month when compared to last year, and those numbers correlate with a media campaign effort, executive director Ed Phillips said.

Through November, 2,190 people had gone through the visitor center, Phillips said. About half were from the U.S., and most international visitors came from the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany.

Using a $328,600 Golden Leaf grant, BCTDA created “A Most Unusual Trail Guide,” began publishing advertisements in statewide magazines and created a commercial for the Charlotte area.

During the summer BCTDA hosted a group of travel writers, taking them around the county and feeding them locally grown food, Phillips said. Since then, they’ve written about the lure of Burke.

The county also was featured on “Life in the Carolinas,” Phillips said.

“At the end of October when our advertising slowed down, our web traffic dropped,” Phillips said. “So we were driving traffic to our website by our advertising.”

But it’s not just advertising that has pulled in visitors.

“Visitors in our visitor center is somewhat a seasonal event,” Phillips explained. “People start looking at traveling in April and May. It peaks in the summertime around the middle of July and then it peaks again in October around leaf season.”

Events this year that drew in crowds included the Ridge to Bridge race, Red, White and Bluegrass Festival, youth sporting events, Foothills Wine Festival, GNCC race, the Berry site’s Archaeology Field Day, the Historic Morganton Festival and Waldensian Festival.

South Mountains State Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Lake James State Park, wineries, the Beanstalk Journey and Old Rock School are also among many attractions that bring in visitors, Phillips said.

This year, business consultant Alan Clark has helped match small businesses with resources to help them grow.

For example, he worked with The Beanstalk Journey to establish a Groupon deal, Clark said. That brought in 2,000 unique visitors.

“How do you pull people off the highway?” Clark asked.

That’s something BCTDA is working on through the local wineries and vineyards by creating a brand, he said. Eventually, the county could become known for Catawba Valley wines.

Clark helped Lake James Winery acquire a grant earlier this year to install a solar-electric hot-water system. He also connected Carolina Mist Winery with City of Morganton funding to move the business from Lenoir to downtown Morganton.

More people visiting the area has also resulted in greater occupancy tax collections.

Compared to the previous year, the tax collection was steady from April to October, Phillips said. The county isn’t only attracting tourists, but business travelers are also making use of local hotels and motels.

“So we had the best July we’ve ever had. Collected over $35,000 in occupancy tax,” Phillips said. “And in October the best October we’ve ever had, and that’s close to $34,000.”

The tourism industry has also created 66 jobs in the county since July 2010, Phillips said.

Some people reaching out to the visitor center are interested in doing more than taking a brief trip to the area.

BCTDA has seen a “huge increase” in the number of people interested in relocating to Burke, Phillips said. Requests for information occur daily.

BCTDA still has $170,000 of the Golden Leaf grant to use, Phillips said. The organization is additionally funded through the occupancy tax and this year has money through tourism efforts in the City of Morganton and Town of Valdese.

It plans to host two more groups of travel writers, implement a hospitality training program and focus on supporting current and attracting new tourism opportunities.

One location that is beginning to garner attention is Henry River Mill Village, where scenes from the upcoming “The Hunger Games” movie were shot, Phillips said.

The movie is set to be the first in a trilogy, so it’s likely the movie crew will return for additional filming, Phillips said.

BCTDA is already getting calls about visiting the village, Phillips said.