NCLM Volume 70, Issue 4, 2020

SOUTHERN CITY QUARTER 4 2020 18 When asked whether she had trekked off the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, she said no. Rather, she was trekking the mile between a brewery in Dillsboro to a brewery in Sylva. “I thought, ‘Every small town in North Carolina has a brewery now. But what do you do when you have four just along your Main Street corridor, and two more in neighboring towns?’” remembers Breedlove. “There has to be a way to turn these into an asset for the towns—a way that captures them collectively and brands them as something.” Immediately after, he engaged the towns and began working with the county’s partners in public relations and advertising. Soon, the Ale Trail was born. Maps were created that not just highlighted the area’s top beers on tap and the route to get to them, but effectively cross promoted other attractions in the area too. “Hopefully it extends their stay and leaves them with a good experience,” Breedlove said. “It’s nice to be at the brewery, see visitors come through, look at your collateral and put it in their purse.” Add in the hiking and waterfalls map, dil- igent conservation efforts, Sylva’s “secret season” (also known as winter) and a dozen other projects, and the sum is larger than its parts. People, as the numbers bear out, want to come back. Since 2015, tourism spending has increased over $30 million. By making it lovely for their residents, they’ve made it especially lovely and worthwhile for the visitors. “It’s not a one-time thing,” Sylva Mayor Sos- samon says of the attractions. It’s part of their appeal. The main strip of Sylva is less than four square miles, and yet one trip to the area only scratches the surface. “The Ale Trail takes multiple visits. The fishing trail takes multiple visits. Every trip to Sylva can be different.” ˘˘˘ The Engine In evaluating the successes of the area, every person interviewed for this case study independently indicated the strength of the local partnerships as the pivotal factor. It is the consensus asset in how Sylva and Jackson County have been able to edge their tourism economy ahead of similarly attractive areas. The partnership aspect is so strong, in fact, that credit for each project is difficult to attribute. The lines of project ownership, development, and support are blurred, beneficially and without ego. “We are all working together,” Spiro says. “It is not a competition. It is truly for the betterment of everybody.” Photo Credit: Town of Sylva. continued from page 17 Photo Credit: Ben Brown.