ASHEVILLE – The hotel and accommodation market in Asheville continued to grow strongly at the end of 2021, a further sign that the area’s tourism economy is recovering.
In November, total accommodation sales for Buncombe County were $55.9 million, up 54% from November 2020, according to the monthly report from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. While the local tourist economy stalled early in the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, it has since steadily picked up again.
The TDA board reviewed the numbers at its regular monthly meeting on January 26, which was held virtually. The authority did not meet in December, so it was about two months of data in this meeting, for October and November.
Don Warn, Buncombe County finance director and tax agent for the TDA, described the accommodation numbers for October and November 2021 as “astonishing.” The TDA’s current fiscal year runs from July 2021 – June 2022.
While the numbers are moving in the right direction, TDA President and CEO Vic Isley and Board Chairman Kathleen Mosher noted in a post-meeting press release that hotel occupancy is still not quite where it was in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 benchmark. .
“Hotel occupancy for the month of November 2021 was 74%, two points lower than in 2019,” the two leaders said in a press release. “Short vacation rentals reached 70% in November 2021, an increase of eight points from the reference year 2019.”
For December, hotel occupancy was “at the same level as 2019 at 69%, three points higher than vacation rentals at 66%,” they noted.
“However, vacation rentals rose 10 points in December from 2019 levels, which remains good news for local residents who earn additional income from visitors using their vacation homes,” they said.
Some other highlights from the monthly report:
• Vacation rentals continued to deliver a particularly strong performance, with revenue of $17.5 million in November, up 66% from the prior year.
• In the first five months of fiscal year 2022 – July-November – Buncombe vacation rentals totaled $100.4 million, representing 33.1% of all lodging income.
• Hotel/motel accommodations still accounted for the lion’s share for the July-November period, with revenues of $194.6 million, accounting for 64.2% of the total.
• Bed and breakfast revenues were $8.1 million, or 2.7% of all lodging.
The TDA gets most of its funding from a 6% occupancy tax on property sales, so higher sales mean more revenue for the agency. In its report, the TDA noted that city tax revenue through November was $10.5 million, up 52.5% from the same period in the prior fiscal year.
According to the state statute, the TDA must spend 75% of the tourist tax on tourism promotion and 25% on the Tourism Product Development Fund, which is invested in tourism-related projects.
For fiscal year 2022, the current amount of product development funds available is $10.4 million.