Helene cost Asheville hundreds of millions in visitor spending. Businesses here have to win travelers back.
Asheville's economy runs on visitors, food, beer and makers. Hurricane Helene hit all of it in 2024. Many businesses have reopened, but travelers still need to hear that the city is open, and locals need to find who is back.
Benchmarks in this market
- Typical organic visibility gain for local hospitality businesses, 6-12 months
- +20-40%Typical organic visibility gain for local hospitality businesses, 6-12 months
- Typical lift in direct bookings and reservations after a site rebuild
- +15-30%Typical lift in direct bookings and reservations after a site rebuild
- Typical cost-per-booking drop from trip-planning search ads
- -10-25%Typical cost-per-booking drop from trip-planning search ads
Illustrative ranges for engagements of this type, not verified Asheville-specific client data. Orientation, not a guarantee. Your starting point changes the range.
How we work here: Remotely from our San Francisco office, with ET coverage for calls and travel for kickoffs. We don't claim a Asheville office we don't have.
Clients across every market
What's actually different about Asheville & Western North Carolina
The Asheville metro had about 422,000 people in 2024, according to Census estimates. The city sits in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and for years it has drawn visitors for the Biltmore Estate, the Blue Ridge Parkway, its restaurants and its breweries. Asheville shared the Beer City USA title in 2009 and is known for having one of the highest numbers of breweries per person in the country.
Hurricane Helene changed that picture in September 2024. Flooding destroyed much of the River Arts District, which early reports put at about 80% lost, and cut off roads and water across the region. Buncombe County visitor spending fell about $320 million to $2.65 billion in 2024, then slipped another 2% in 2025, though the county still ranked third in North Carolina. Western North Carolina lost more than 2,000 jobs supported by visitor spending in 2025, and some well-known restaurants and shops closed for good.
Recovery is real but uneven. By 2025 hundreds of River Arts District artists were working again, and apartments and studios have reopened in rebuilt buildings. North Carolina's tourism reports show visitor interest returning in 2026. Healthcare, led by Mission Health, is one of the region's largest employers.
Visitors still ask 'is it open?'
Months after Helene, many travelers weren't sure what was open. Up-to-date Google profiles, clear 'we're open' messages and fresh photos help businesses get found by visitors planning a trip.
Small, independent and story-driven
Asheville's appeal is local makers, chefs and brewers. Marketing that shows the people, the process and the place outperforms generic ads, especially on Instagram and in search results with photos.
Locals reshuffled after the storm
Some businesses moved, some closed and some reopened in new spaces. Accurate listings, new location pages and updated maps matter for locals finding who is back and where.
Web design leads local search
Google's data shows about 390 monthly searches for 'web design Asheville' and 170 for 'SEO Asheville', both rated low competition. Many businesses rebuilding after the storm also need new or refreshed websites.
What usually moves first in Asheville.
Based on what tends to be the binding constraint for companies in this market. Your audit may point somewhere else. We go where the numbers say.
Industry playbooks relevant in Asheville
The part clients actually remember.
Not the reports. The uncomfortable conversation that changed the trajectory.
Every other agency said yes to our 80-feature spec and quoted nine months. Digital Squad said most of it was wrong and showed us why. That honesty is the only reason the company still exists.
Telling us to shut off ten of our eleven categories was the last thing we wanted to hear, and it was completely right. We got one category working properly and now we have a repeatable playbook for the rest.
We were terrified of going light-mode in a category where everything is dark. It turned out to be the whole point. People finally remembered who we were.
Asheville questions, answered straight.
Update your Google Business Profile hours, photos and posts first, then your website and social channels. Mention what's changed and what's new. Many travelers check Google Maps before anything else, so accurate listings matter most.
Let's look at your numbers.
A free 30-minute teardown of your funnel, ads, and site, run against what actually works in Asheville & Western North Carolina. You keep the findings either way.