Diving into North Carolina's Tourism Landscape with Visit NC's Wit Tuttell

North Carolina is the sixth most visited state in the country and third on the East Coast, and it's easy to understand why. With 300 miles of shoreline, the coastal plain is filled with beautiful beaches, including the Outer Banks, where the Wright brothers made the first successful manned flight in history in 1903. The middle of the state, known as the Piedmont, is home to many of the state's major cities, and the western end of the state is home to the beautiful Appalachian mountain range, including the Blue Ridge and portions of the Great Smoky Mountains. In this episode, I sit down with Witt Tuttle, who serves as the Executive Director of Visit North Carolina, which is North Carolina's official state tourism office. Witt has been in North Carolina tourism since 2006, and during this time, the office has been recognized with numerous national awards for excellence in marketing and advertising. In 2022, tuttle was named State Tourism Director of the Year by the National Council of State Tourism Directors. From Maneo to Murphy, we talk about the beauty and our shared love of North Carolina and the myriad of reasons why North Carolina is the sixth most visited state in the country. We share stories of how this beautiful state has captured not only our hearts, but the hearts of so many other people. We discuss what it means to responsibly market a state's tourism while at the same time being mindful of the people who live there and the natural assets and culture that need to be protected as well. Witt is a masterful storyteller with a desire for visitors and residents alike to visit the real North Carolina, where you can authentically experience the people, places and culture that makes North Carolina one of the most visited states in the country. And for real visit North Carolina, you're listening to Exploration Local, a podcast designed to explore and celebrate the people and places that make the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian Mountains special and unique. My name is Mike Andrus, the host of Exploration Local. Join us on our journey to explore these mountains and discover how they fuel a spirit of adventure. We encourage you to wander far, but explore local, let's go Well. I'm extremely excited about this episode because I am a lover of North Carolina and we're going to talk about all things North Carolina today. So I am here with Witt Tuttle. He is the executive director of Visit NC and we all are here attending the fifth annual I believe it is Outdoor Economy Conference in Cherokee, north Carolina. Beautiful Cherokee, north Carolina, and there's so many great things that are in the mountains, and we know that that's why I live here. But we live in such a great state that we're going to talk about the entire state today. Witt, welcome to the show.

I'm so glad to have you All right. Well, thanks for having me, thanks for coming out to Cherokee.

We were talking a little bit before we started recording, and one of the things you share with me which is, I think, is a great lead into this is that you all are about the marketing sort of outside of the state as well as throughout the state, but you're about bringing the people that aren't here experiencing the things that we are on the daily to enjoy our great state of North Carolina.

Yeah, that's exactly it. You know we're part of the economic development partnership in North Carolina and so our job is to help out the citizens and the economy of the state, and to do that you pride it. Bring in people to come, they visit. They spend a lot of money, they overspend of what a resident would spend, and then they leave and you don't have to put their kids up through school. You don't have to spend a lot on those, you know, assisting them. So it's really good to bring outside visitors into the state to help the economy and help the citizens.

Yeah, absolutely. Let's paint a broad stroke, a broad picture of what Visit NC is all about.

So we are this official state tourism office, so we're trying to promote the entire state. It's an amazing state to promote. It's so diverse and so vast. You know, 543 miles wide. It's a huge state, ranges from some of the most undeveloped beaches in the eastern United States to the highest mountains east of the Mississippi and you know we're the sixth most visited state in the country for domestic visitors. A lot of people don't realize that I had no idea. Yeah, because we're kind of a quiet success story. You know people love us but we don't have all the big sort of tourism entities out there shouting our names out. So it's really sort of still an individual basis and a local kind of feel to it.

So it must be a pretty amazing job being the executive director of one of the most amazing states in the United States and being the sixth largest in terms of people coming here.

Don't tell anybody I got the best job in the world. Yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome. It's where it's a blessing to be here.

Oh, that's so good. So let's talk about some of the elements. What are the elements that make up Visit NC?

We're basically a tourism marketing office and we work with all the local tourism offices across the state to try and be a sort of a co-op. We're an amplifier basically of their messages to try and get their messages out. And the idea there is to showcase the state. You know, we're known for our natural, scenic, beauty, soft adventure but we don't have any. Most of our big attractions don't market themselves. There are state parks, federal parks, you know, or private industries that don't have a lot of marketing budgets. So we try and get everybody to work together cooperatively to get the message out there that we're a great place to see. And we're really focused on who we market to. We don't want just everybody to come, we want to get the best visitor to come have the best experience at the best time. That really helps our communities grow and sustain and maintain the beauty that really makes North Carolina such a special place.

And when you hear of people who are coming in, be it groups, because I would imagine it's not just individuals, right? So imagine, you know, bringing in groups from the outside, organizations from the outside, businesses from the outside, to kind of come in here, what are the things that you hear back from them, like, why did they choose North Carolina? I know you are sitting at your executive level, but the boots on the ground, the people in the street, do you get a chance to kind of hear some of those stories from them?

We do. We try and do that type of research to see why people come, relocate businesses, why they move here, why they want to visit. And it's fascinating what you hear, but it really is. It comes down to the natural, scenic beauty, soft outdoor adventure. We've had companies move here because they like the mountain bike and you can mountain bike here. We've had companies we have so many people that come and say, oh gosh, I visited and it was so beautiful. And you think, okay, well, did you go to the coast, did you go to the mountains? And they go. No, I went to Charlotte. Or I went to Raleigh and it's so green and we think Raleigh is green and Charlotte is green, but it is. You know. It's beautiful cities, even our urban areas. Really, you can get outside easily. You've got parks, you've got hiking trails, biking trails. We're just a fantastic state for people to come and explore and see.

Oh, that's so good, and I'm so glad you mentioned the trails too, because hopefully we will at some point get that moniker of the Great Trail State. So yes in the middle of the year of the trail right now in North Carolina, and unprecedented in this area, anyway unprecedented in our state. So yeah, a lot of cool things are going on there.

We do, and we have so many fantastic trails. You know the Appalachian Trail, the Mountains to Sea Trail. There's all kinds of trails out here in this state that are just incredible. You could spend ages and ages doing them and never see the same thing twice.

So you mentioned people that will refer to an area and they may come from. When I left the hotel this morning there was somebody from Illinois and they're just coming specifically to Cherokee and that may be their only exposure to Cherokee. Or they may just go to the coast and that's their only experience of North Carolina is the coast. And while those are great experiences in and of themselves, I'm thinking what a really cool thing would be is if we sort of walk through that 543 miles oh yeah like I've lived in central North Carolina, I've traveled all over North Carolina, so I'm a little my perspective is a little different. I think they're all great, but I want I think one of the things to be really neat is if we kind of let's start at the coast and we'll end where we are today let's go, manny Odomurphy.

There you go, manny Odomurphy.

Close to that anyway. So let's do this. Let's talk about maybe two or three different types of things that people may not know about these regions.

That are reasons that they definitely want to come and experience not just one region, but all three regions oh yeah, and I'm thrilled to be on this local podcast, because our campaign really now focuses on what we call for real. For real visit North Carolina, and what we mean by that is to see the local people see the thing that's there, what makes them different and unique. Don't go to that thing. You can do in a million other places. When you come to North Carolina, see something. That's. That's all about North Carolina and we got a lot of those great stories all across. All across the coast is unbelievable if you haven't been in the North Carolina coast. It is like no other place in the east. Geographically it's different. Geologically the outer banks sticks out 30 miles out in the ocean. There's no other place in the world where those little barrier islands are that far out and it just makes it different. We've got wild horses that have been roaming on these islands out on the outer banks since the 1500s. Their descendants of Spanish Mustangs actually came over on ships and in shipwrecks they swam to the shore and have just been living there, and so you can go and see these horses just still living out on their own, roaming on the wild on the outer banks. It's it's a craziest thing, but they're beautiful horses and and great fun. That's one of my great favorite stories about the coast. But it's not just horses, you know, it's a. North Carolina was the home to Blackbeard, the world's most famous pirate. A lot of people don't realize he was probably a North Carolina resident because he knew how to get his ship in and out of these narrow coastal areas and could navigate places that really probably only a local would have known. Now nobody knows who Blackbeard was, but we do know exactly where he was killed and you can go to that site and there's a festival there every year on Oak Creek, oak Island, that celebrates, you know, blackbeard and all what he did good and bad, that's right yeah, yeah, growing up surfing, we would always be down in Rodanthe and Salvo and I don't know if it was the lure back then, or the lure, however you say it, but it was.

We were always wondering whether or not we were surfing over. You know pirate ships from days gone past, but who knows? I know some scuba divers and things like that would go in off the coast and see some ships.

But you'll occasionally see a story where, where you know, storm will blow through and it'll pull up a ship, or shipwrecks or planks from a ship. That stuff is still happening so today yeah, it's, it's amazing, you know, in that unique area is what makes it so distinct and it was the America's first national seashore, so a lot of it's still protected, so you've still got that stuff out there that you can find when you go out there and it's just a unique landscape, you know, because it's so far out into the ocean it has constant wind, which is also why the Wright brothers came, and that's where the first flight happened, so you can go. One of my favorite memories of living in the state is when my son was little. We went out to the Wright brothers monument and and they have it paced off where the first flight went and my little son put out his arms and just ran down like he was an airplane running right where the Wright brothers did it the first time ever and it was just, it was just a magical moment. Yeah, yeah all right.

So we've have blackbeard, we have horses, we have the Wright brothers, great waves we have, oh yeah a community or a beach community. That's not as Heidi calls it, not not a lot of high rises, it's still sort of that remote feeling a little bit. It's changed. Everything does change.

We were talking about that earlier yeah, yeah, but it's a local feel. It feels you know walkable, it's surroundable, you're not, you're not in a, you know skyscrapers, you, you, you rent a place, typically where you've got a kitchen, you can take some meals in, you can get together, you can come with family. One of the great things I think about the coast is that we are so great for multi-generational vacations, for families to come together and get that time together, which is so important these days, just to continue and build those connections and not separate away from from people. So, yeah, that's beautiful, yeah, and then you come in along the, along the highway, you come off the the on the coastal plain, you go through the Alligator River. You can hear Red Wolves howlin, one of the few places like there. You go through Plymouth and has the largest population of black bears if anywhere in America. They do a black bear festival there. It's incredible. We'll keep coming in to the main part of the state when you know Raleigh, durham, it's the capital. So a lot of people think, okay, it's a capital, they've got a bunch of politicians there. But I think what people don't realize Durham in particular, and Raleigh, just the one of the hottest food scenes in the country, national, award-winning chefs all over the place. Chapel Hill as well kicks in for the third leg of the triangle and if you haven't eaten there, there's just amazing. All types of food and it's not just your stereotypical southern food. Yes, there's great barbecue. You can get great barbecue, but you can get other things that are that are southern, expired inspired or southern season or from people really from around the country who have come in and sort of made it their home. Great scene, food scene going on in Raleigh and events as well. One of the things I love since the pandemic is all these events have come back and it's just so awesome to see in the state, particularly music you know for Americana we've got, you know, great stuff. We got Earl Scruggs out in Cleveland County. You've got the Merlefest with Doc Watson and Wilkesboro just great great music scene. Ibm a, which is the bluegrass music awards every year in Raleigh, great concert scenes and just a fantastic live environment going across the Piedmont and then we get into the Greensboro area and there's still history that's there too, with the battlefields and oh yeah, amazing national park sites. You know, and as we come up on our 250th birthday of the US, you know we played a big role in that. We were in some of the early battles of the revolution, you know, and we had some important battles of the revolution that led to the United States being what it is. Great ways to celebrate that and see that in the state. And then, you know, there's other things that make us what we are and one of them was moonshine. So we celebrate that in the in the Piedmont in North Carolina there's some great distilleries up in places like Wilkesboro, north Wilkesboro. There's places where, where these moonshiners really created NASCAR because they were driving fast, you had to drive fast to get away from the cops, to get the moonshine down to the people who drink it so I was getting ready to make a joke about that.

But that's not a joke.

That that is not a joke if you go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, they have junior Johnson's moonshine still in there. Too funny, because without moonshine there would be no NASCAR. How? about that these guys started racing themselves. They were like I'm faster than you know, I'm passing you. That got it down on a track, and and now here we are. You know, we still have about 80% of the NASCAR teams are based in North Carolina too, so it's really we're the home of NASCAR, and, and it's because of moonshine nice, which now you can buy legally. So you can still buy it illegally probably too, but legally is the way to go. I think that's right.

And then we head to where we are now. We head to the mountains.

Yeah, beautiful, amazing, amazing mountains in North Carolina. You know we are so blessed, this biologically diverse area. We have the Smokies, we have the Blue Ridge, we have the High Country just an amazing variety of mountains. And the one thread that kind of connects it all is this incredible thing called the Blue Ridge Parkway, and if you haven't been on the Blue Ridge Parkway you just have to do it. It's an American treasure. It's called America's Favorite Road 430 miles of a road built on top of the mountains instead of at the base of the mountains. So you've got more than 300 overlook. You've got about 30 tunnels and you go through communities that just have this culture that still reflects back on who they are, where they came from the arts, the crafts, the Appalachian culture, now beer as well, a lot of beer being made. It's just a real incredible experience. It's something you've got to do at least once in your life.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and we're coming up on the most wonderful times of the year to do that too so just a few short weeks from now, we'll have this place ablaze in color, so I absolutely can't wait.

I'm always asked what's the best time? When is peak color? And the beauty of North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Parkway is it goes from about. You know, Mount Mitchell is about 6,600 feet and then Asheville is about 2,025 hundred feet. So it's not about when to go, it's where you are and what elevation you're at. It's always peaking somewhere. From most of the fall season you can get to a peak somewhere, and so that's the beauty of North Carolina. You don't have to really time it well, you can just go on the parkway. You're going to find some magnificent color and the beauty of it is all that land around it, the national forests and things. So the parkway is spectacular, but just the scenery, the unbroken wilderness, is really amazing. And they're mountains, but they're forested mountains. So to me it's not as stark as the mountains in the Western US. It's more friendly, I know. It's just amazing how warm and friendly these mountains feel to me.

Yeah, you're so right. I love to focus on something that we talked about a little bit earlier and unpack it a little bit, and it's this idea that you mentioned for real. Yeah, Like I love this concept of for real and it fits right into our tagline, which is Wanderfarr. But explore local and you all are putting legs to that. You're putting meat around this whole skeleton and I'd love for listeners to hear a little bit more about that.

Yeah, we really. We want you to come to this place and learn about who we are, what we do, what makes us us, what makes us different, and to do that we want you to see the real us and not the things that are and we don't mean just not manufactured, but what's really at our core. If it's the crafts that are made by the Cherokee people out here, or even the Max Woody in his rocking chairs this is a guy who makes these amazing rocking chairs, but that's real, that's what's been done out here for so long and we want people to experience that, to get to know who we are, and that's our really goal is to bring that the best visitor, the visitor that wants to know that. If you just want to go and party and have a good time, there are plenty of places you can do that. But if you want to come and learn about a people and a history, this is the place to do that and see what's really in North Carolina these real waterfalls, these real people, the Cherokee where we are I mean, it's the perfect example. This is the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee Indian. They've been here for 12,000 years. This is where their culture was formed. The land is part of them and when you come here you can experience that, and it's just an incredible thing for a visitor to do to step into their land with them and they'll take you around and show you what it means to them and why these things are sacred and what this deeper meaning is that you just wouldn't get in a lot of other places.

And then what about the central and the eastern part of the state? Like what are some of those places that are not the Instagram worthy places. It's not the things that you know that everybody's going to go to, but finding out where the locals are going and finding out what makes a place unique and so different, because there's some miles and miles of places we can go.

Exactly, and Heidi on our team did a great job creating this outdoor NC program. We're encouraging people to get out and see those other things. The Blue Ridge Parkway is awesome. It's fantastic, but if you go on a weekend during the fall it's probably going to be a little more crowded than you would enjoy so you can go across. There's highways that go across the northern, the top part of the state, that are nearly spectacular and beautiful. You wouldn't even know about it. So we're trying to promote those areas as well. We're trying to get people to do some of these alternative festivals. The state has some amazing state parks and some of them don't get nearly the visitation of others, but they're just as beautiful. So maybe if you know about Stone Mountain, we can get you to go to Pilot Mountain and see Pilot Mountain, which is also fantastic. You can go see the town of Mount Airy, which was Maybury. That's where Andy Griffith grew up and he modeled that town after Maybury. So you can go to the authentic Maybury and see things like that. And really the best place to go is visitnccom. That's our website. We have a ton of data there. You can search it by the region, you can search it by your interest, or you can just check out some of our videos and see really neat, cool, local, real places to go.

That is so great, and I'm glad you mentioned that, because your website is very different than a lot of websites that you go to, and what I mean by that is that it's almost like an opportunity to curate your own experience here in North Carolina, and so I have done exactly what you've said. I have spent a lot of time on your website and the videos are absolutely amazing first class all the way but what I really like about it is that it's not just hey, this is the Piedmont, this is the Piedmont, and then these are a lot of things that can be done within the Piedmont, and you've done that for a lot of the different regions too, and so I'm sure part of that was by design, but for me personally, I've never really seen a website quite like that, to be honest with you.

Yeah, as a marketer, this state being so diverse and having so much things, it's a challenge, it's a curse as much as it is a blessing. So we've tried to break it out that way and really try, and we're trying to get people all across the state and spread them out and disperse them Because it's so important for these rural communities to have tourism and to have that economic engine. They're not going to get a factory, they're not going to get a big plant to come and employ 500,000 people, but if they can get that consistent people coming in and appreciating their history, that can help those businesses thrive and help those communities grow.

When we think about all these people coming in. What is the challenge for somebody like yourself and your staff and just the economic development partnership of North Carolina? To bring people in and yet not sort of overrun any particular area or asset or something like that. I would imagine that's got to be important to you at some level.

Oh, it's tremendously important to us. You know, we do a resident surveys to make sure People are still appreciating those visitors and when they're coming in, we try and get, as I was saying, the best visitor to come at the Best time and it is a challenge and we try and distribute it across the state because, you know, there are areas that are really really in need of Visitation and those people, and then there are areas and times that don't need it as much. So it's a lot of management as well, which it didn't used to be 10 years ago. 10 years ago it was, you know. Oh, we need more, we need more, we need more. But at some point you realize, you really see, that you don't just need more, you need the right thing, not not all of it, but we need the best thing to keep people flowing and keep the, keep the communities healthy. But part of that health is not too much. You know, it's like anything too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. So in order to keep them healthy, that's one of the things we've done with outdoor and see and with leave no trace. We've tried to distribute people. We've changed the timing of some of our advertising. Oh, where we can turn it on, where we can turn it off to manage it. We'll take out a place. If we see it's it's getting too many visitors and it's been featured in an ad, we'll pull it and we'll promote a different place to try and get those things going. Okay, and it's a constant challenge, it's a big challenge for us as we move forward.

I bet All right. So I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit. I'm gonna take off the marketing hat. Okay take off the executive hat and let's just dive into your heart a little bit right. So what I mean by that is, north Carolina is special to you, it's special to me, it's special to anybody who lives here I, or most people, I should say, to live here. But I'm curious to know, just from your perspective, what is it that you love about where we live, what is it that you love about the state of North Carolina and what just sets it up and Sets it apart from other places that you've lived before?

Yeah, you know, we try and describe what makes North Carolina different. I've been working with a guy who's been here 30 something years and we kind of use a football term, you know and there's that quarterback that has that quiet confidence. That's noticeable and you can see that in athletics. But but I think that's the thing that makes the people here so special is it's it's like a we're not cocky, we're not bold, we're not out there saying North Carolina is the greatest place in the world, but we know that it is and we believe that it is and we have this quiet confidence and belief in the place we live being so special. And I think that's really what, what, one of the big thing that separates it's not just you guys, beautiful landscape, but you have these amazing people in it too that are, that are just, they're willing to share with you, they're willing to show you, they're willing to open up to you. And I've noticed it from the first day I visited here a long time ago and I still see it today. It's really what makes the place special to people, the people.

Yeah, yeah, I don't have to. I would have to agree with that. So for somebody who is in South Dakota they've never been to North Carolina ever they get a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with you and they say I'm gonna be here for a week. I'm bringing my family over to North Carolina for a week. I've heard all these great things about it. We know, I know there's gonna be opinion-based. I have opinion about what I would share with people. But what would you share with people? What would you tell them?

I say number one you gotta come for two weeks, because one week's just not enough. This stays way too big, big for two weeks and you don't wanna you know you don't wanna just blow through it. You really wanna see it, you wanna enjoy it. And I think probably the biggest thing we need to work on is there are so many beautiful things that people just drive right by. They don't realize there's a hiking trail there. They don't realize you know they could do rafting or kayaking. So we're gonna try and do a program that helps get people connected with guides who are out there. But I think we need to get more people to do that. So I would recommend they do that. They plan it a lot, because you can miss so much if you don't plan it. So make sure to plan before you come. Make sure to realize the barbecue is gonna have vinegar in it.

So don't be Especially if you're on the Eastern part of the state.

That's right, don't be shocked by that and then just have a good time. You know, I definitely would. I would set up several barbecue joints in the neighborhood.

Yes, you should.

Because that's kind of my thing. But I also think you know what I love about the state is in a typical barbecue restaurant. You know, at a time when our country is so divided, you go to a barbecue restaurant and everybody's there. There's black people, there's white people, there's rich people, there's poor people, there's urban people, there's rural people and it's everybody's together. That's, to me, is beautiful.

Yeah yeah, All right, I'm gonna put you on the spot again. Favorite, and I'll share some of mine too, but favorite North Carolina. Just experience Like when you go back in your life and you're just thinking of North Carolina, what are the things that you just kind of hold on to.

Oh, there's a ton, but I tell you a couple of really incredible things. We did a thing called we did a campaign a couple of years ago where we brought people to do their first see something they'd never seen before and we got to repel down a waterfall. Oh cool, that was incredible. And the Green River Gorge was amazing. We brought a girl from Ohio, who a single parent, with her mother, and the girl had never seen the ocean. And to see that little girl see the ocean and fly a kite was just beautiful. It was really moving. Those type of things, to see people have those experiences to me, is just really remarkable. Yeah, oh, my gosh.

Yeah, you're so right. I think I remember the first time somebody ever saw it coming over the. This wasn't North Carolina, but it was Florida, and I know the experience. You come over the causeway and the person's from Nebraska and they're seeing the ocean for the very first time in their life and I mean they literally are emotional, just like you just got there I mean it just it kind of chokes you up and something sort of pulls you back and you're like, oh my gosh. And for me in North Carolina I mentioned surfing, so that was a really big thing for me. But one of the things that was amazing is, first time ever, visiting P Island and going into Cape Hatteras, and for me that was just. I felt like I was on just the most remote place, nothing else existed around, and it was back in the day where we could. You know, it's been a while since I've been back there, but I mean we would get in the truck and we would drive up the beach and we would see as the tide is changing, the surf, and we would get out and we'd surf and then we'd keep continuing on and we would do it all day you know, and then at night we would just sort of cook out on the beach and just it was just pure. I don't know how to describe it. It was just absolutely just pure good goodness.

And the sky at night, the stars you can see because you're so far out, and the same thing in the mountains. You get out here and you get a starry night and it's just, you see the curve of the earth. It's so crazy, yeah.

Yeah, it's so crazy and I have had the experience that you're talking about with the waterfall repelling and that is unbelievable. So we did it with French broad outfitters. You were in the Green River game land, so I'm not sure who you did yours with Was it Green River Ventures by NHS? Yeah, another amazing group. They probably took you down Bradley Falls. Yeah, just absolutely amazing. It's stunning.

There's no doubt about it, yeah, except we had a lady there who we were gonna do it and it was a surprise for her. And then she got out there. She had never seen a waterfall, so seeing a waterfall was great. And then we were like guess what You're gonna get to repel down this?

waterfall.

She was like oh, guess what, I'm afraid of heights.

And we were like oh, this may not work, but it was great. Did she make it down?

Yeah, she did and that helped the bond with her and her husband even stronger because he helped her get through it emotionally. And it was just amazing. My kids learned to ski in North Carolina. I'll never forget that the first time you release them when they're going down the hill, they've been skiing between your legs and they go down on their own. First time they did double black diamonds. It's just incredible.

That's right. Okay, so we said we weren't gonna talk about this, but since you went there, I wanna go there too. All right, so let's talk about the North Carolina ski resorts just a little bit, because we know it's not British Columbia, I know it's not Austria. I mean, I get it, I get it. I've skied out West. But I gotta tell you I love our ski resorts here. And maybe it's just my age the older I get, the more I just wanna make turns with my kids and make memories.

Yeah, yeah, and you know we are the perfect place to learn to ski and I, like I said, both my kids learn to ski here too. We have great facilities that are set up for beginners. That's primarily the. You know we get. A lot of our skiers come from Florida and they're learners, so our resorts are challenging but they're perfect for learners. You can go and come in a week and go from being on the bunny hill to doing most of the mountains here, and you can't do that in many places, and our ski schools and all that are set up designed for beginners. So you know they got the great, the magic carpets and things like that. You're not gonna be hanging on a tow rope, falling all over, hurting yourself. I really love our ski industry. I think it's the perfect place and it's not just skiing, it's sledding, snowboarding, you know, snowshoeing. There's lots of great stuff you can do out here in the man and a lot of people don't even realize you can do that in.

North Carolina. Right right, yeah, I have to be honest with you. I didn't know you could snowshoe here until last year. I've lived around ten years.

Yeah, and.

I didn't realize you could snowshoe. So when January day I was gonna take my daughter, we're gonna try to go snowshoeing up in sugar mountain and unfortunately they got so crowded that it was, it was closed off, but there are more places you can go.

So yeah, you know that's the other sugar. Yeah, go to go during the weekdays, that's the best time. Pro tip, yeah, absolute pro tip.

Yeah, one of the things we haven't talked about is we haven't talked about some of the elements that make up visit North Carolina. So you bring in sports groups from the outside. My dad is an example of retire North Carolina. My dad, we decided to retire down here because of the tax situation, so he's military great it intakes, that check and and. That wasn't the primary reason, but that was a good reason, but it was just the beauty. Once we moved down here and my parents did, it was like, okay, we know we're gonna end up. We're gonna end up in North Carolina. They live in Virginia for most of their life.

If it wasn't, yeah, yeah, you know, in the beauty of retiring people, coming here is number one. They come in three or four times to visit before they decide where to retire. So they bring in money. We're also trying to bring in a lot of people who retire and are starting their own businesses. They've come to have their kind of second career, to do that thing. They've always wanted to. There's a guy in Edenton's, a great example, who retired I think he owned a company came down and bought a boat. Now he does boat tours in Edenton. So he's really helping the community out and he's doing what he wants to do. So really proud of the retire program. We work with sports events organizers to try and get tournaments here, youth tournaments and Sporting events, e-sports events we do as well. We work with international tour operators to bring them in. We also have the film office as part of ours. So if you've seen, you know the Hunger Games or Last of the Mohicans, dirty dancing, all that kind of stuff filmed in North Carolina and that's a really great him. Those movies when they come in have a huge impact on the areas where they film.

Yeah, I had no idea until last night we started talking about filming North Carolina that that's a lot of people who retire and work with the kids. I mean it makes sense now that we're talking about it that there's somebody that has to try to bring those people in or at least sort of make a pitch to have movies coming to North Carolina. But even in our area, in our backyard in Asheville, we're going to have a beautiful Christmas story movie that's going to launch this year, so I can't wait for that, that's really cool.

Hallmark loves us. Yeah, the Hallmark Channel loves us and those things are great, man, they run all the time and they look beautiful and they're nice and happy. Yeah, kind of like those.

Yeah, Well, we kind of live in a Hallmark state, I mean, if you think about it.

I mean in every way. You know that may be our next campaign. I think the Hallmark state, the Hallmark state oh gosh.

Well listen, I know that your time is precious, but I can't thank you enough for just coming down having a little conversation about North Carolina. Obviously you're passionate about it. It's what you do for a living, promoting this. But I have a feeling that even if it wasn't drawing a paycheck for you, you probably would still be promoting North.

Carolina at some level. Sure, I think I always will be, and thank you for promoting local. I think that's so important. It's not just for North Carolina but for all of us to share who we are, and it makes us closer together as a people, absolutely Thanks. So much, whit, thanks.

I've had the good fortune to travel extensively throughout North Carolina over the years, from beautiful cities to historic small towns, coastline drives to mountain back roads, rolling farmlands to sprawling suburbs, and dismal swamps to pristine rivers. I just cannot get enough of this Tar Hill state. There is no other place I'd rather live than in North Carolina. So how about you? Are you ready to experience North Carolina for real? There truly is a lifetime of amazing experiences, epic adventures, places to visit and people to meet in this great state, and I hope you're lucky enough to experience it all. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please consider leaving us a review. It truly does help us reach more people, and if you know someone who also might enjoy the podcast, be sure to share this episode with them. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram and keep those episode suggestions coming. You can email them to me at mike at explorationlocalcom. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to much of what we talked about in this episode. You won't be disappointed. Well, that's going to do it for this episode, and until we meet again, I encourage you to wander far, but explore local MUSIC.