Will new tagline help more tourists discover Asheville?

Look who may discover Asheville next year.

With the new tagline: “Asheville: Discovery, inside and out,” a new tourism campaign will target adventurous travelers aged 25-55 with an average household income of $75,000 and an appetite for the outdoors, food, arts and discovery.

The new tag will replace the “Asheville: Anyway You Like It” that the community has used in the past decade to build its reputation as a must-see Southeast destination for food, beer, arts and the outdoors.

“Now we want to take Asheville to the next level as a destination,” said Marla Tambellini, director of marketing for the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The new tagline and plans for new advertising were unveiled Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority at the Holiday Inn West.

Studies from the Peter Mayer Agency showed that 2,000 customers liked the new motto, compared to the old motto and two other choices.

“Obviously, they nailed it,” said Buncombe Commissioner Joe Belcher, and a member of the TDA board. Belcher said he was impressed with hard numbers backing up the creative pitch by the New Orleans-based ad agency.

Attracting more tourists to fill more rooms and generate more money is the job of the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau. Asheville was number one in the state last year with an 8 percent increase in tourism spending, said Stephanie Brown, CVB executive director.

Buncombe’s 9.1 million annual visitors directly spend some $1.5 billion a year, compared to about 1 million visitors and a $150 million economic impact in the early 1980s.

The TDA’s budget is $7.8 million for this year, coming from the 4 percent occupancy tax charged on the city and county’s 7,000 hotel and bed and breakfast rooms.

With new hotel projects bringing an additional 1,500 rooms in coming years, Brown said her team will have to work harder to create more tourist demand for an expanded supply. “We want to make those additional rooms an opportunity instead of a competitive challenge for our partners,” Brown said.