Asheville, North Carolina, is a city of about 95,000 people. The mountain city has a growing number of jobs in manufacturing, tech and professional services. As it works to further diversify its economy, tourism remains a big part of the equation.  

Tourists bring in nearly $3 billion to Asheville per year. But when Hurricane Helene destroyed parts of the city, including its water system, tourism ground to a halt. For locals still recovering from a storm, the question of when and how to invite tourists back is tough to navigate. 

Renee Bouchart is one of nearly 30,000 people who rely on tourism to make ends meet in a city with a higher than average cost of living. So like a lot of residents, she has a couple of jobs. One is teaching yoga. The other is cleaning short-term rentals. 

When Hurricane Helene hit Asheville in late September, both Bouchart’s jobs were affected. The yoga studio where she taught classes, Flow at Foundy, was “completely flooded” when the nearby French Broad River swelled to record heights, she said. 

With her yoga income on hiatus, Bouchart is relying on her cleaning job for income. But most visitors have canceled fall bookings, meaning much of Bouchart’s income has dried up. She used to clean one or two houses every day and make around $900 a week. Now she’s lucky if she gets a third of that.

“I, just today, showed up to a property and it wasn’t used. So the guests didn’t come. And it’s just like, that’s me losing money that I thought I was going to get,” she said. 

Still, Bouchart said she gets why visitors are avoiding Asheville right now.

“The water is probably going to be some sort of yellow to sweet tea color. It’s not going to be clear when you wash your hands, it’s going to smell like chlorine,” she said. 

There’s no timeline for when clean drinking water will return to the city. Helene knocked out key infrastructure, and floodwaters churned the once-pristine reservoir into a muddy mess. 

In town, many places still feel like a disaster zone. The restaurants that have managed to open are operating with massive cisterns of water they had to import into the city. And they’re serving reduced menus on paper plates. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard are stationed around town. And residents are still visiting aid sites for basic necessities like drinking water, clean showers and laundry. 

People are still grieving and recovering from the shock of the storm, said Cayla Clark, a comedian and mental health professional. 

“We’re left with all of this wreckage, and trying to navigate, how to rebuild, or whether to rebuild or relocate,” said Clark, who has been holding weekly support groups for Asheville residents.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people that they feel kind of like they’re moving through their day in a fog,” she said. 

And in that mental state, it’s hard to welcome and serve tourists. 

“There are people that come in and they say, ‘Whoa, there was a storm here?’ Which is really jarring because it feels like, I mean, it was just so intense and huge for all of us,” she said.  

But what’s also tough right now is paying basic bills. 

On a recent Saturday morning, Jeffrey Burroughs sat in their tiny jewelry shop in Asheville’s River Arts District with an iced coffee. Their business wasn’t flooded during Helene. 

“We’re on the higher side of the tracks, further from the river, and there’s only currently about 20% of the district remaining, but it’s open,” they said. 

Pre-Helene, their store and the whole neighborhood would be filled with shoppers — especially this time of the year when the leaves are changing colors. 

“There would be so many people out here walking around,” they reflected. “And it’s just leaves on the ground.”

On a normal Saturday they would sell at least a few custom bracelets, but on this day, they made zero sales. Burroughs said they’re still processing the disaster themself, and it felt awkward to reopen the shop. But realistically, they had to.  

“I have to open, I don’t know for whom, but I have to open because now I’ve got to pay rent,” they said.

Asheville really needs visitors right now, they said. 

“Regardless of how I feel about tourism, the reality is our city is built and defined by the income we generate from tourism. That’s our current situation,” they said. 

Burroughs understands that residents are torn. But in general, folks agree on one thing: If tourists do come, they should bring patience, plenty of drinking water and plan to spend some money.