The Mountains Came Back Faster Than Anyone Expected: Inside North Carolina's $37.2 Billion Tourism Year

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  August 21, 2026

Macon County visitors spent 11.1 percent more in 2025 than they did the year before, the second-largest increase of any county in North Carolina. Only Cherokee County did better, at 13.9 percent.

The state released those numbers last week, and they come from the corner of the mountains that spent much of the last two years fielding phone calls asking whether it was still standing. It was. People came anyway, and they spent more than they ever had.

Franklin and Highlands Carried an Unusually Strong Year

The 11.1 percent figure covers all of Macon County, and that matters, because Macon is really two tourism economies stacked on top of each other.

There is Franklin, where the visitor spends money on a cabin rental, gem mining with the grandkids, a permit for the Little Tennessee River greenway, breakfast downtown, and a tank of gas on the way to the Nantahala. Then there is Highlands, thirty-some miles and about 2,000 feet up, where the visitor is booking a suite at a resort, eating a $90 dinner, and shopping Main Street galleries.

Both moved in the same direction last year, which does not always happen. High-end mountain travel and budget-conscious family travel usually respond to different pressures, and when they climb together it tends to mean the region itself got more appealing rather than any single price point catching a break.

Franklin also sits on the Appalachian Trail, and hiker season is a real economic event here. Thru-hikers coming north out of Georgia hit Franklin in March and April by the hundreds, and they spend on resupply, laundry, hostel beds, and the first restaurant meal they have had in a week. That flow held up in 2025.

What the report cannot capture is how much of this was word of mouth. After September 2024, a lot of people who love these mountains made a point of coming back and telling other people to do the same. You could feel it downtown last summer.

What $37.2 Billion Looks Like Across the State

Statewide, visitors spent $37.2 billion in North Carolina in 2025. That broke the previous record of $36.7 billion from 2024, which had itself broken the record before it.

Governor Josh Stein announced the statewide total in May during National Travel and Tourism Week. The county-level breakdown, which is the part that matters to anyone living west of Hickory, followed in August.

Domestic travelers accounted for $36.1 billion of the total, up 1.5 percent. International travel went the other way, falling 2.8 percent to $1.1 billion. That international dip is a national story more than a North Carolina story, and it barely registers in the mountains, where the visitor is far more likely to be driving up from Atlanta, Charlotte, or Greenville than flying in from overseas.

Tourism directly employed 230,997 people in the state, a modest 0.3 percent increase. Payroll did better, climbing 3.5 percent to $9.8 billion. More money going to roughly the same number of workers means wages rose in an industry that has historically struggled to pay well.

The tax picture is where this gets interesting for residents. Visitor spending generated $4.7 billion in total tax revenue, up 2.5 percent, including about $1.4 billion in state taxes and $1.3 billion in local taxes.

Divide that $2.7 billion in state and local revenue across North Carolina households and it comes to roughly $600 per household in public revenue that residents did not have to pay themselves. In a small mountain county with a limited property tax base, that math carries real weight.

Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley said the findings show the state's lasting appeal and the resilience behind the mountain recovery. Visit NC director Wit Tuttell put it more plainly, noting that the state's tourism strengths can withstand a hurricane and economic uncertainty both.

The Smokies Region Outperformed Everywhere Else

Break the state into its tourism regions and the pattern gets clearer. The Smoky Mountains and Cherokee region grew 4.3 percent in 2025, the largest gain of any region in North Carolina.

That region covers the far west: Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Swain, Macon, Jackson, Haywood. It is also the part of the mountains that took the least damage from Helene. The storm's worst flooding concentrated east and north, along the French Broad and the Swannanoa and up through Yancey, Mitchell, and Avery.

So the far west had a head start on recovery, and it used it. Cherokee and Macon counties drove most of the regional gain, and the numbers suggest a real shift in travel patterns rather than a temporary bounce.

Some of that is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which remains the most visited national park in the country and pulls traffic through Cherokee and Bryson City year-round. Some of it is the Nantahala Gorge, where rafting season runs strong from spring through October. Some of it is simply that when Asheville lodging got scarce and expensive, travelers went looking one valley over and discovered Sylva, Waynesville, Bryson City, and Franklin.

The High Country grew 2.5 percent, a solid recovery number for an area that took serious damage. Watauga and Avery counties depend on winter sports and fall color in roughly equal measure, and both seasons showed up.

Elsewhere in the western half of the state, Yancey County gained 5.5 percent, Caldwell 6.5 percent, and Burke 5.6 percent. Burke's performance stands out given how hard the storm hit the county.

Jackson County's Best Number Was Not About Spending

Jackson County visitors spent $486.85 million in 2025, up 5.1 percent. That is a good number. It is not the important one.

The important one is employment. Jackson County's direct tourism workforce grew 7.3 percent to more than 2,643 people, the largest tourism employment growth rate of any county in North Carolina.

Spending figures can rise because prices rose. Employment figures rise because businesses decided they needed more people, which means they expected the demand to stick around. That is a different kind of confidence, and it usually shows up a season or two before anything else does.

Sylva has been building toward this for a while. Main Street has filled in steadily, the brewery scene grew up, and the town has become a real weekend destination instead of a place you passed through on the way to somewhere else. Cullowhee brings Western Carolina University traffic year-round, and Cashiers anchors the high-end market on the southern end of the county.

Avery County also posted 5 percent tourism employment growth, another sign that the High Country is staffing back up.

For people who live in these counties, tourism employment cuts both ways and everybody here knows it. These jobs are seasonal, they are often part-time, and a workforce that depends on them needs housing it can afford within a reasonable drive. That tension is not new and the new numbers do not resolve it.

What the numbers do say is that the industry is expanding rather than contracting, and in a small county, an expanding employer of 2,600 people changes the math on a lot of household budgets.

Asheville Is Still Digging Out

Buncombe County visitors spent $2.6 billion in 2025, down 2.1 percent. That is the exception in a mostly positive report, and it deserves an honest look rather than a footnote.

Buncombe still ranks third among all North Carolina counties in total visitor spending, behind only Mecklenburg and Wake. Even in a down year, Asheville moves more tourism dollars than most of the state combined. But down is down, and the Asheville and Foothills region overall slipped 0.7 percent.

The reasons are not mysterious. Helene destroyed the River Arts District, took out the city's water system for weeks, and cancelled the tail end of the 2024 leaf season, which is the single most valuable stretch of the Asheville calendar. Businesses closed. Some have not reopened. Others reopened in different buildings.

Recovery in a dense urban tourism market is slower than recovery in a rural one because there is more infrastructure to rebuild and more interlocking pieces that all have to work at once. A rafting outfitter in Swain County needed the road and the river. A gallery in the River Arts District needed the building, the block, the parking, the water, and the foot traffic.

The regional split also tells you something about how travelers behave. When one destination gets complicated, they do not cancel the trip. They pick a different mountain town.

That redistribution is part of why the far west did so well. Some of those visitors will go back to Asheville when it is fully back. Some of them found Waynesville or Brevard or Franklin and decided they liked it better.

Why Residents Should Care About Someone Else's Vacation

It is easy to read a tourism report as news about visitors. It is more useful to read it as news about the tax base.

In counties where the year-round population is small and the commercial base is thin, occupancy tax and sales tax from visitors fund things residents use every day. Fire departments. Road maintenance. Library hours. Rescue squads that pull hikers off the Bartram Trail.

Occupancy tax collections in most WNC counties also feed tourism development authorities, which reinvest in trails, festivals, downtown streetscapes, and marketing. That reinvestment is why Sylva's Main Street looks the way it does now, and why Franklin's greenway keeps getting extended.

There is a real conversation to be had about limits. Short-term rentals compete with long-term housing. Peak weekends make a fifteen-minute errand take forty-five. Anyone who has tried to get through Cherokee on a Saturday in October understands the cost side of the ledger.

But a 4.3 percent regional gain, paired with the strongest tourism job growth in the state landing in Jackson County, is the kind of result that tends to hold. It means the mountains rebuilt their reputation faster than the timeline anyone drew up in October 2024.

The next test comes this fall. Leaf season is the highest-value stretch of the year across all of WNC, and 2025 was the first full one since the storm. If the 2026 numbers hold the line, the recovery stops being a recovery and starts being the new baseline.

Plenty of people who came up for a long weekend last October ended up spending the drive home wondering what it would take to be here permanently, and if that describes you, I am always glad to talk through what different pockets of these counties actually feel like to live in.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did visitor spending grow in Macon County in 2025?

Visitor spending in Macon County rose 11.1 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, according to the annual economic impact study commissioned by Visit NC and released by the N.C. Department of Commerce in August 2026. That was the second-largest percentage increase of any county in North Carolina, behind only neighboring Cherokee County at 13.9 percent. Macon County includes both Franklin and Highlands, which gives it an unusual mix of budget-friendly outdoor tourism and high-end resort travel. The county's performance helped drive the Smoky Mountains and Cherokee region to 4.3 percent growth, the strongest of any tourism region in the state that year.

Which North Carolina county had the biggest tourism growth in 2025?

Cherokee County led all 100 North Carolina counties with a 13.9 percent increase in visitor spending in 2025. Macon County followed at 11.1 percent. Both sit in the far western corner of the state, in the Smoky Mountains and Cherokee tourism region, which sustained the least damage from Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Jackson County led the state in a different category, posting a 7.3 percent increase in direct tourism employment, the largest job growth rate of any county. Jackson County visitors spent $486.85 million in 2025, up 5.1 percent from the prior year.

Has Western North Carolina tourism recovered from Hurricane Helene?

Recovery has been uneven and depends heavily on where you look. The Smoky Mountains and Cherokee region, covering the far western counties, grew 4.3 percent in 2025 and is running ahead of where it was before the storm. The High Country grew 2.5 percent. The Asheville and Foothills region declined 0.7 percent overall, with Buncombe County down 2.1 percent to $2.6 billion. Buncombe still ranks third statewide in total visitor spending. Counties farther from the worst flood damage rebounded first, while the hardest-hit river corridors and the Asheville market are still rebuilding capacity and confidence.

How much tax revenue does tourism generate in North Carolina?

Visitor spending generated more than $4.7 billion in total tax revenue in 2025, up 2.5 percent from 2024. Of that, roughly $1.4 billion went to state government and $1.3 billion went to local governments, for about $2.7 billion in combined state and local revenue. Spread across North Carolina's households, that works out to roughly $600 per household in taxes covered by visitors rather than residents. In mountain counties where tourism is a larger share of the economy, occupancy tax collections also fund local tourism development authorities that reinvest in trails, festivals, and downtown improvements.

How many people does tourism employ in North Carolina?

The travel and tourism industry directly employed 230,997 people in North Carolina in 2025, a 0.3 percent increase over 2024. Direct tourism payroll grew faster than headcount, rising 3.5 percent to $9.8 billion, which means wages in the sector climbed. In Western North Carolina, Jackson County directly employed more than 2,643 people in tourism, up 7.3 percent and the highest growth rate in the state. Avery County posted 5 percent tourism employment growth. These jobs cluster in lodging, restaurants, outfitters, retail, and attractions, and they carry outsized weight in small mountain counties.

 

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Sources

North Carolina Tourism Hits Record $37.2 Billion in 2025 — NC Commerce · Amid Hurricane Helene Recovery, NC Tourism Spending Charts Variable Growth — NC Commerce · North Carolina tourism hits record $37.2 billion in 2025 — Smoky Mountain News · North Carolina tourism spending saw a new record in 2025 — WLOS · Two notes on what I did and did not verify. The per-household tax figure (~$600) is my own arithmetic on the $2.7 billion state and local total against roughly 4.4 million NC households, not a number Visit NC published. And the report did not surface county-level figures for Haywood, Swain, Transylvania, Graham, or Clay, so I kept those out of the body rather than estimating. If you want those included, the full Visit NC county tables would have them