NC Economic News and Opportunities

The awful economy worldwide and nationwide has done no big favors for the North Carolina tourism industry this year, but things aren’t as bad at mid-summer as they could have been. The swine flu has delivered a bit of a blow to some of the western mountain region’s summer camps, but those camps that have not been hit by sick campers are doing fine. Visitors on the Blue Ridge Parkway look to be as numerous as in most other years, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is hosting its fill of hikers and campers as well.

Tourism in North Carolina accounts for over 190,000 jobs across the state, from the Outer Banks through the midlands and into the mountains, making it one of the most vital industries year after year in the state. Visitors spend more than $18 billion (yes, that’s a “b” on that number) in the state, contributing greatly to our tax revenues, to the tune of over a billion dollars a year.

So… tourism is still doing okay, but how’s the general NC economy doing? This question is significant for those from out of state who may be contemplating purchase of vacation property or would dearly love to relocate here – many from states with economies worse off than ours, who would like to get jobs or start new businesses. Columnist Michael L. Walden of the Raleigh area News and Observer wrote about the state of the state’s economy on the 9th of July.

Continue reading »

Your North Carolina Dream

People young and old who have lived much of their lives in other places but have enjoyed North Carolina’s vacation offerings for many years, are among the many who choose either to build their own vacation home in our state, or find a way to live here full time. Even if that means moving their business to North Carolina, starting all over again with a new business, or just retiring to one of our spectacular communities specializing in making golden years golden.

Yet by now almost all of us old enough to know it takes money to live are keenly aware of the housing crisis that began a couple of years ago, became steadily worse throughout the country as the bubble burst entirely, and is now affecting more and more people who got fine prime rate mortgages. So this is a pretty good time to check real estate trends in some of North Carolina’s most popular and/or populated areas, see how our state is holding against current and developing economic trends. If you’re planning or just dreaming about a North Carolina home, here are some constantly updated sources you may want to check regularly…

Realty Times NC Market Conditions
NC Real Estate Market Reports
NC Mortgage Guide: FHA

Forbes voted Raleigh as the #1 city in America for careers, and the U.S. Census Bureau projects that more than Three of the top five housing markets in America that have maintained their home values are in North Carolina.

Continue reading »

5 Adventurous Day-Trips Out West

Cheoa Lake, Todd Knaperek

As Memorial Day signals the beginning of the annual vacation season, North Carolina’s tourism communities are happy to note that the soaring gasoline prices of the summer of ‘08 have settled back down to reasonable. More families should be “getting away from it all” this season, seeking the comfort of natural beauty and feeling close to the land to leave behind for a little while the stresses of normal life in uncertain times.

The mountainous western region of the state is among the most popular destinations for out-of-state visitors, and not all of them are among the millions who populate the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, hike the highland portions of the Appalachian Trail, or cruise along the lush peaks along the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are many rural and somewhat city-fied attractions in western NC to tempt the family vacation planner.

WLOS Channel 13 in lovely Asheville offers a total of five (5) mapped day-trips in the western counties that look to be great fun to the inveterate sight-seer. There are viewable and printable maps, photos from each trip, lists of attractions, activities and goodies to keep an eye out for along the way. The drives are loops and do not take more than a couple of hours if driven straight through, though they can easily last all day at a leisurely pace with some stops planned-in. There are also hints for making the trip more pleasant, and even some detail about where to pay special attention to the speed limits.

Most of these day-trips meander through wilderness, occasional towns, and rural byways that, depending on when you visit, offer all sorts of agricultural goodies. There are farms where your family can pick your own fresh produce, fruit and berries straight from the fields, and others that maintain convenient off-road market stands for what’s fresh. Some offer delicious mountain delicacies such as sourwood honey, apple and cherry ciders, fruit and pumpkin butters, exotic jams and compotes, and often there will be a fine display of regional crafts as well. Bird and bat houses make of gourds, various styles of hand-painted decorative and/or musical gourds, yard and garden ornaments and scarecrows, even textile offerings destined to become heirlooms.

Continue reading »

NC Wine Country News & Events

The April showers have been ample and the vines are budded all across North Carolina’s verdant wine country. Wine has proven itself one of the most popular and lucrative agricultural, agritourism and value-added production success stories since the demise of Big Tobacco, and the many public offerings of wine country promise to remain one of the strongest sectors of the important North Carolina tourism industry in these troubled economic times.

First, in a big first for NC’s wine industry, the Duplin Winery in Rose Hill near Cape Fear, has become the first North Carolina winery – the first winery outside the west coast, in fact – to have earned the Adams Beverage Group Fast Track Brand award as well as the Impact Hot Brands Award from Wine Spectator publications.

Duplin’s champagne is being served at Mount Vernon, its Magnolia was named a favorite summertime wine by Martha Stewart. The winery now has a 1 million gallon capacity and receives over 100,000 visitors annually. There are daily tours and tastings, weekly music with wine and cheese in the courtyard, and even a popular dinner theater.

In other news, the Haw River Valley is now the third wine growing district in North Carolina to receive federal recognition as an “American Viticultural Area” [AVA], establishing that grapes grown in the 868 square mile area produce distinctive wines. The piedmont valley joins previously recognized AVAs in the high country Yadkin Valley and Swan Creek within Yadkin’s broader AVA. This brings multiple piedmont vineyards and six wineries into the prestigious designation and is a significant boost to the wine and viticulture industries expanding in our state.

Check out some of the coming season’s events at Visit Alamance, beginning with the Art on the Haw River Wine Trail on May 2 and 3, 2009. This is a free for the whole family event and will combine a winery tour and tastings with exhibitions and demonstrations of fine arts in the style of traditional artist studio tours. Visitors can travel the 50-mile scenic drive through the heart of the rural piedmont to find unique, hand crafted furniture, hand blown glass, distinctive pottery, metal sculptures, paintings and photographs, collectable quilts and fiber arts, the cultural crafts and fine arts kept alive and thriving by the friendly people in this friendly region.

North Carolina currently ranks 10th in the nation for wine and grape production and is home to more than 80 fine wineries. That’s triple the number that existed in 2001, so this diverse agriculturally-based value-added industry continues to lead the way as a valuable model of successful rural development in this time of general economic insecurity.

Whiskey Rebellion Loses One More

Legendary mountain moonshiner Popcorn Sutton died at his home in Cocke County, Tennessee of natural causes, a family member says. He was 62. Sutton managed to escape spending 18 months in prison after federal agents found some stills and hundreds of gallons of moonshine in a Haywood County storage shed last summer. He’d pled guilty to the charges, was sentenced this past January and was supposed to report to a federal prison in Kentucky.

Chalk one last mark on the board for the Whiskey Rebellion vs. The Revenoo’ers, as rumors abound that his death may not have been so ‘natural’ after all…

As ‘Moonshine’s’ daughter wrote in her book, “Daddy Moonshine”,

“It isn’t surprising that Popcorn has attracted so much attention. His slippery craft and his old-timey antics appeal to something in our collective past. His overalls can be seen as the blue denim flag of old pick-up trucks and cork-plugged clay jugs. His colorless hat is the nod of a gentleman, his beard the badge of a wild man. His high reedy voice carries the echoes of banjos and fiddles. His stealth and focus speak volumes for the cunning and moxie of who he is: a Smokey Mountain moonshine master.”

Public schools don’t spend much time on the Whiskey Rebellion generally, though it was one of our new nation’s first insurrections, beginning when our first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, convinced Congress to impose new taxes on distilled spirits and carriages in 1791. The tax was inherently unfair by taxing small producers a third more than big producers, a particular burden on producers in the western frontier areas where whiskey was a tradable commodity. Civil protests on the frontier soon became armed rebellion, so President Washington decided to make an example of western Pennsylvania and assembled a militia. They marched west out of Harrisburg – with Washington himself in the lead – but found no sign of the rebels. Eventually fines were imposed, people were jailed, victory was declared, and folks started worrying about other things.

The suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania served to encourage distillers in Kentucky and Tennessee, which remained outside federal control for some years. These areas and portions of North and South Carolina began producing and selling on the sly, and moonshining remained a regional art form in some people’s books. For instance, did you know that NASCAR has roots in the Rebellion?

At any rate, our hats are off to perhaps one of the last notorious moonshiners from our mountainous region. Here’s to you, Popcorn! May there be banjos and fiddles in heaven.

Links:

Legendary Moonshiner Dies
Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton Dead
Popcorn Sutton
Wiki: Whiskey Rebellion
Whiskey Rebellion
Friendship Hill National Historical Site

Some Good News for NC Tourism

The current dismal state of the economy everywhere has had some involved with North Carolina tourism at a loss as to what the state can expect in 2009. North Carolina ranks 6th in tourism out of all 50 states, with entire sectors and large swaths of land dedicated to hosting visitors throughout the year and for special occasions, holidays, seasonal offerings and fun festivals.

100 of North Carolina’s counties benefit from tourism as our welcome visitors spend more than $15 billion dollars here every year, making tourism one of the biggest contributors to our economy. Thus when last summer’s high gas prices and the autumn gas shortages cut into the number of visitors, many citizens got a pre-taste of the coming recession.

Tourism promoters and attractions are are stepping up their on-line marketing efforts, new attractions are opening and others are getting face-lifts, and tourism boards are defending – and in some cases increasing – their budgets to keep the tourism dollars coming in.

Continue reading »

National Treasure

My family watched the movie National Treasure the other night, in preparation for Tuesday’s historic inauguration ceremony swearing in Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

The film stars Nicholas Cage as the last in a long family line of treasure hunters seeking the fabled treasure of the Knights Templar-turned-Freemasons, said to have been brought to this country before its beginnings and carefully hidden by the Founding Fathers beneath Trinity Church in New York and found only after following a trail of clues long thought to have been lost to time.

But there are other, less obscure treasures in our nation that we can proudly protect and gratefully enjoy. Some of them are included in Brainz’ scenic post about 16 Incredible North American National Parks, though most of those are out west or up north, including that ‘other’ North American nation, Canada. What was not included is North America’s most beloved, most visited National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee border and includes some of the tallest peaks and most folded landscapes east of the mighty Mississippi.

Whether your family pitches a tent in one of the well-kept campgrounds, makes use of the rustic shelters along the park’s portion of the Appalachian Trail, stays in luxury hotel accommodations in one of the nearby towns or cities, or rents a cabin or chalet nearby or in the park, there’s plenty to see and do that keeps millions of visitors coming back year after year. 2009 is the year of the park’s 75th Anniversary, so be sure to make your plans well in advance if you’re planning to stay for awhile.

Hike some of the 800 maintained trails, take in some beautiful scenery along the Parkway, play some golf in a landscape that harkens back to the Scottish Highlands where the game first began. Take up mountain biking or engage in a leisurely horseback ride. Attend a festival in a nearby city or get good and wet at an area ski resort, most of which offer summer activities for the whole family. Take a tour of area organic farms or artists’ studios, hit some of the westernmost hotspots on the Mountain Music trail and get to know some of the best fiddlers, banjo pickers and washtub base pluckers anywhere!

You’ll love our beautiful National Treasure nearly as much as we who live here do, I promise. See you there during the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 75th Anniversary year!

Links:

North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains Golf
16 Incredible North American National Parks

New Year’s Celebration of Music & Dance

Once again the North Carolina Symphony will be hosting a spectacular New Year’s Eve bash, this time at Raleigh’s Marriott City Center downtown. The extravaganza will feature the symphony under the able leadership of Music Director Grant Llewellyn and guest artists, along with the UNC School of the Arts School of Dance to lend the music some thrilling rhythmic visuals.

The evening begins at the Marriott (just steps from the City Center venue) with cocktails and hors d’ouvres. Then to the Meymandi Concert Hall for the concert, then back again to the Marriott for a formal dinner with Llewellyn and the guest artists. The dinner menu includes salad and dessert, with a choice of gourmet main courses for confirmed meat-eaters and vegetarians.

Following the meal there will be dancing to the big band sounds of Leon Jordan’s Continentals, leading to the big champagne toast at midnight to ring in the New Year. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

A great alternative New Year’s celebration for those who enjoy the slopes and want to bring the kids is the annual Appalachian Ski Mountain New Year’s Extravaganza which offers a night of fireworks, torchlight skiing, moonlight ice skating and more, fun for the whole family. The resort near Blowing Rock offers full packages including rooms, meals, ski lift passes and events, so book now!

If you love big band music and dancing any time of year, don’t miss the Big Band/Swing Dance Weekend at Asheville’s spectacular Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa. On January 23-25 the Inn offers the music of the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Charles Goodwin Orchestra featuring vocalist Maddy Winer for the annual weekend of swing dancing fun. There will be dance instruction Saturday morning for those just starting out, so by Saturday night even amateurs will be able to swing along to the music. Packages include two nights’ accommodation, breakfast each day, two tickets to all three of the Big Band events plus admission for two to the VOP reception Saturday night before the blowout show. Book early, this event is known to fill up fast!

Links:

North Carolina Symphony
Appalachian Ski Mountain New Year’s Extravaganza
Big Band/Swing Dance Weekend

Experience a ‘Gilded Age’ Christmas

…and Visit the North Pole!

Erin Brethauer,
Asheville Citizen-Times

The economic news has been getting progressively worse and worse through the fall, politicians tell us we’re in for hard times, something the resourceful people of North Carolina are quite accustomed to. In the mountainous west of the state – designated in the best of times as an officially “depressed region” – the #1 source of income is tourism and our tremendous natural beauty in all seasons still draws millions of appreciative visitors from all over the world.

One of the most famous of the WNC attractions is America’s only genuine castle, the beautiful Biltmore Estate, once home to George Vanderbuilt and his wife Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, the estate continues the tradition of holiday festivities begun by the Vanderbuilts on Christmas Eve of 1895. With 4 acres of floor space, 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces, there’s plenty to decorate in the ornate style of the estate’s roots in America’s “Gilded Age.”

Continue reading »

An Early Ski Season This Year!

I woke up this morning – a few days before Halloween – to snow flurries only 2,000 feet up the ridge to the continental divide. That’s the earliest snow that wasn’t blow-by from Mitchell we’ve had for 16 years! No, the leaves haven’t quite hit peak here yet, so even if there were accumulation higher up we probably couldn’t see it. But we haven’t had the regular winter coverings we used to get around here, and it hasn’t snowed enough to sled on for at least five years at my house. Global warming, I guess.

We really like to have four real seasons in a year. That’s why we chose to live here in Western North Carolina. So it’s not so strange that a little bit of white stuff makes us giddy. The summer tourist season was mighty slim this year when gas went to $4 and $5 a gallon and hundreds of thousands of people stayed home. Then came hurricane Ike, and we had no gas at all for three full weeks in September. Schools and factories and businesses had to shut down, people took to walking and riding their bikes to the store, even as deliveries stopped and there was no fresh bread or milk to be had. The leaves are a bit late this fall too, by this time they’re usually few and far between. What could save us, in a region where tourism is the #1 economic activity? Why… snow!!!

Thus it was with great delight that I noticed Cataloochee Ski Area’s ski and snowboarding season started today, October 28 with fresh made snow 8 to 12 inches deep. The weather pundits are predicting that yes, our ski season will start early and last long, which is the best news we’ve had all year. Cataloochee’s the only one open now, but others will be up and sliding sometime between the first week of November through the week of Christmas, depending on snow-making conditions.

Hawksnest Resort is aiming for any time after November 1st, looking good for that right now, too. Sugar Mountain is planning to open November 7th, and several other areas may open earlier this year too. If you’ve a favorite, be sure to call and find out if they are planning to move up their opening dates to take advantage of what is shaping up to be a spectacular ski season here in the beautiful NC mountains!

Check out the links below to get contact and ski package information from the resorts themselves, as several are offering great season passes and combo lodging/lift and slope deals this year. Book yourself and your family for a fine getaway early, and wax up the gear!

Links:

Ski North Carolina
Appalachian Ski Mountain
Cataloochee Ski Area
Hawksnest Resort
Ski Beech Resort
Scaly Mountain Outdoor Center
Ski Sapphire
Sugar Mountain Ski Resort
Wolf Ridge Ski Resort