Rohit Bhargava encourages his audiences to practice “nonobvious thinking” to break through the confusion between what’s true and what isn’t in marketing and media.
He told his audience of 300 hospitality professionals that they need to get creative in attracting tourists to Asheville and Buncombe County in a speech at the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s annual meeting Sept. 16.
“What all of you are in the business of is creating experiences, and the experiences that people remember for a lifetime when they bring their kids and they have that one amazing experience, you are the architects of that. … The more we can share those experiences in a way that people believe, the more we can overcome that believability crisis,” Bhargava said.
The annual meeting was held at the Crest Pavilion at the Crest Center on Asheville’s northwest side, a venue that hosts weddings, receptions, school dances and other events.
The event cost $44,000, including $20,000 to have Bhargava speak in support of his 10th book, Non-Obvious Thinking: How to See What Others Miss, which is scheduled for publication Tuesday, Oct. 1, according to its publisher, Ideapress Publishing.
“These events provide educational and inspirational content for partners as well as opportunities to connect, build bonds and ultimately strengthen our community and local economy,” said Ashley Greenstein, spokesperson for the BCTDA.
Bhargava ended his speech outlining his four elements of advice for how Asheville promoters can creatively overcome a potential tourist’s skepticism of media and marketing agencies. In coming up with strategies, marketers should create space for new ideas, uncover insights by observing, focus their ideas and create a twist to stand out in the crowd, he said.
The event also included annual tourism-related updates from Vic Isley, BCTDA president and CEO of Explore Asheville.
Visitors spent $2.97 billion in Buncombe County in 2023, the most ever recorded, accounting for 20% of the county’s gross domestic product, Isley said. Of that, the largest chunk of spending — more than $900 million — went to lodging. Visitors spent $787 million on food and beverage, $541 million on retail, $372 million on transportation and $366 million on recreation and entertainment, Isley shared.
One of every seven jobs in Buncombe County is supported by tourism, and 12% of income for local residents is generated by tourism, she said. Additionally, visitor spending generates $119 million in city and county sales tax revenues, according to the TDA’s annual report.
McKibbon Hospitality honored for local contributions
The ownership group of some of downtown Asheville’s most recognizable and largest hotels was honored for its contributions and philanthropy at the meeting with the TDA’s William A.V. Cecil Leadership Award.
The award, created in 1989 as a tribute to William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil, honors the leadership, creativity and dedication of people who support Asheville’s tourism sector. It was presented to J.B. McKibbon IV.
Since John McKibbon III partnered with owner Glenn Wilcox in 2016 to transform Asheville’s tallest building — then known as the BB&T building — into a hotel and mixed-use structure, the Tampa, Fla.-based company’s downtown footprint has only grown.
McKibbon Hospitality now owns four large hotels in downtown Asheville — Aloft Asheville Downtown, AC Hotel Asheville Downtown, Kimpton Hotel Arras and Moxy Asheville, which opened this month.
Isley said McKibbon’s philanthropic contributions to Asheville often go under the radar and deserve more recognition.
“McKibben has a service-first spirit, and many local nonprofits have benefited from millions of dollars of investment from McKibbon from Homeward Bound and the Verner Center for Early Learning Center to Asheville Community Theatre and the Asheville Art Museum, just to name a few,” she added.
“McKibbon has contributed greatly to Asheville, and regrettably, Asheville hasn’t given much acknowledgment of that. In many circumstances, they are not ones to toot their own horns, which is why — that’s just one of the many reasons we’re recognizing them this year,” Isley said.
The TDA’s Vic Isley giving the Vanderbilt trophy to the largest hotel conglomerate here in Asheville ( that must have been some very-obvious thinking on someone’s part.. ) who apparently have been slightly less than revered by an ungrateful Asheville, sigh. This must have been an awesome evening of oblivious ( and seriously tone deaf) thinking and clinking! But yes of course, many thanks to the McKibbons for their largesse ..the attentive business folk that they obviously are. And please tell me that they’re paying a living wage to their hardworking hospitality employees who make all of this well heeled frivolity possible.
Voirdire, your posts sound like they are from on the chaise longue, on the chaise longue, on the chaise longue
All day long, on the chaise longue from north Asheville. McKibbon helped make Homeward Bound’s Compass Point possible for housing homeless. Has contributed millions to many nonprofits in Buncombe County. In the words of Taylor Swift, you need to calm down. And if you even took one minute to understand, you would know that McKibbon pays a living wage and more.
Why so salty, Voirdire? McKibbon pays a living wage at a minimum, and has for years, pent a quarter of a million with local artists for art at the Arras and more at the newly opened Moxy. Paid $1 million in public infrastructure around the Arras. They’ve donated millions to local nonprofits including Homeward Bound and worked with them on the Compass Point housing project and the Irene Wortham Early Learning Center.
you’ll maybe notice that I did thank the McKibbons for their well known largesse. And I was sincerely asking/ hoping they were paying their employees a living wage… very glad to hear that indeed they are …more kudos to them. ( sorry I’m not all that well versed on who is and whom is not paying a living wage in lovely Asheville these days…. somewhat hard to discern from way up here in lofty North Asheville, lol) As for the TDA and Vic Isley and all that that encompasses… Asheville kind of deserves it/them honestly. Anyhoo, see you two at the next TDA swanky soiree for themselves! ….which is all this was/is all about in case you kinda missed that.