‘Seeing is believing’: Local content creator expands tourism growth across WNC post-Helene

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — A budding collaboration between content creators and local tourism leaders is bringing more eyes and visitor traffic to western North Carolina.

Explore Asheville is crediting local content creators like Aisha Adams, a Mills River resident, for helping to expand the mountain region’s digital footprint and draw more tourists to lesser-known spots.

Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Authority said they are working with their partners to tell creative stories that get people out to discover the area. Adams said she does not ignore capturing spots on video of areas left with the remnants of Helene’s devastating floods.

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“That’s just a part of our story now, and it adds that texture and culture,” Adams said. “Now we have this mix of art and resilience that I think is going to make the depth of our work and the depth of our community even more attractive.”

When businesses started reopening after Helene, Adams said she began road-tripping around western North Carolina, documenting her travels online.

One of her videos showing the Jackson County farmers’ market gained nearly 60,000 views. Adams said she never expected her Facebook to garner millions of views every month.

“It’s giving me a sense of community that I never thought I could have in a small town, sort of like Asheville, but connecting with people from all over the world,” Adams said.

Explore Asheville said tourism is showing continuous growth since the floods, including hotel revenue, which has increased by 20% in recent months.

Still, during the state’s annual Visit NC Tourism Conference in March, Governor Josh Stein said one challenge western North Carolina’s tourism industry faces is changing perception of those who still tie the area to images they had seen immediately after the hurricane.

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Vic Isley, president and CEO of Explore Asheville, said, “Seeing is believing.”

Isley said content creators like Adams are showing both the rebounded and still-recovering areas of Helene, providing a more balanced perspective of places that define the mountain community.

“It’s just really important for people to see not only the shiny parts of Asheville, but the deep inner beauty of Asheville,” Isley said.

Adams, who founded her own media company, Aisha Adams Media, supporting small businesses and nonprofits in bringing profitable and conscious content to social media, said she believes more individuals are looking for authenticity from both online content and their travels.

“People are looking for resilience and healing, and I think that’s what we offer here,” Adams said.

Some of Adams’ recent partnerships with Explore Asheville include content for Black Wall Street AVL, which celebrates Black-owned businesses, along with other work for Martin Luther King Jr. Park located at the intersection of downtown and the East End/Valley Street neighborhood.

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Both Explore Asheville and Adams said they have been experimenting with artificial intelligence as a tool, not a replacement, for their online content.

Adams said she hopes to partner on some more professional projects with Explore Asheville in the future.