Area residents have the love/hate relationship with tourists typical of any region where visitation is a big economic driver, i.e we’re happy to unburden their wallets, but can’t stand their driving skills.
Thanks to a recent survey, these visitors are now more to us than just a stream of warm bodies with Crocs and wrinkly kneecaps. Yesterday, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area and Appalachian State University made public the results of a poll of WNC visitors taken last summer. The surveys, handed out at so-called “heritage sites” in a 25-county region, reveal that:
The typical visitor to the North Carolina mountains is a baby-boomer (on average 51 years old), college-educated and “fairly prosperous” (with an average household income of $67,111).
Nearly half of those surveyed came to the region primarily for “relaxation and escape,” while only 10 percent came for “outdoor adventure.”
To get the whole picture — and you know you want to — visit the study Web site.
— Kent Priestley, staff writer
Well, being a new person to the region as my wife and I are, we see both sides of the issue. We moved here from New London New Hampshire, another mountain hideaway that gets inundated with tourists yearly. I hated going to the local grocery store when the Mass-holes (derogatory term for Massachusetts residents) were in town. Every line was too long all the produce was picked over and forget going to the meat counter for anything. The flip side of this was the money that was brought into town. We all liked the new roads, nice restaurants and shops in town. All of which wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the tourist influx.