Regional travel survey being distributed here

The Alleghany County Chamber of Commerce is distributing surveys to visitors in an effort to help improve the understanding of the tourists who come to the region.

The comprehensive travel survey has been distributed throughout the high-country region and includes Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Wilkes and Watagua counties.

This survey, financed through a $10,000 grant from AdvantageWest, is allowing a study to be conducted through Labor Day for North Carolina High Country Host. The chamber, through this survey, hopes to learn what makes Alleghany County visitors different from those who visit the other counties.

Leanne Murray, who recently left her post as executive director of the Alleghany County Chamber of Commerce, said, “The chamber can learn about the preferences of Alleghany County visitors and capitalize on that. We need a reason for people to come to Alleghany County to get something they can’t get in Ashe County or Avery County or Grayson County.”

“The grant is paying for developing the survey and it will pay for the tabulation of the data. We’re responsible for collecting the data. The grant helps pay the folks at ASU (Appalachian State University) to process it.” Business professors Mike Evans, Dinesh Davé and Jim Stoddard are working on the survey.

Judy Donaghy, executive director of the North Carolina High Country Host, said the information collected will be help travel industry representatives better market and promote their regions.

“We expect it to help us understand more about who our visitor currently is, and how that has changed over the years,” she said. As for who our visitors typically are, Murray said, “I think we have a pretty evenly distributed cross-section. We have a lot of retirees and/or part-timers. Those people are repeat customers. They don’t come to the Chamber very often. They may have their own property, they don’t go through some of the main channels, they already have their itinerary.

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