Fayetteville has plenty to offer. Visitors see it. So why don't the city's residents?

Devin Heath grew up in Washington, D.C., but had never been to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Then he began dating the woman who would one day be his wife. He thought the cherry blossoms would make a good date.

“I was amazed at how awesome it was,” he said of one of D.C.’s premier events. He was a young man in love, of course, and that also may have colored his view.

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But the lesson Heath drew from the experience is that you can easily miss what’s around you in your own city by looking through a lens of “the grass is always greener on the other side.”

Heath is CEO of DistiNCtly Fayetteville, a job he started in December, and he believes Fayetteville has a heavy dose of that perspective. The organization, formerly the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and located on at 245 Person St. downtown, promotes tourism and has studied people’s attitudes about the city.

Heath said some of the data was eye-opening for him, like finding out just 56% of people surveyed in Cumberland County had a positive opinion of Fayetteville. He was surprised “how low it was,” he said.

Meanwhile, numbers he has seen suggests people outside of Fayetteville have a more favorable view of the city than its own residents. He believes the best way for the city to promote itself is to get residents to fall in love — or fall back in love — with the place they call home.

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He tells this story:

He and his wife were shopping for light fixtures at a local store, and a store employee asked if they were traveling. They said they had just moved here.

“She said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’” in a joking kind of way, Heath said.

It turned out the woman had been in Fayetteville 30 years and said there was “nothing to do.”

Heath stays ready with facts to the contrary whenever he hears that.

He and his colleagues at DistiNCtly keep in their heads, and on their website, a running tally of things to do in Fayetteville and Cumberland County, from world-class ziplining to the downtown social district to the Fayetteville Marksmen hockey team.

He has lived in about 13 other cities since that festival, including his and his wife’s last home before Fayetteville: Natchez, Mississippi, and Cobb County, in the Atlanta-metro area, where he served as chair of the travel and tourism board. He would put Fayetteville next to any place he has lived, he said.

“There’s just so much here,” he said,

Now, for the ways tourists and visitors show Fayetteville love:

Money talks

In 2022, tourism spending brought in more than $666 million to Cumberland County, according to figures from Visit North Carolina. The spending grew by 9.5% from 2021, the figures state.

Tourism dollars save each county resident $132.43 in taxes, the figures also show.  That all translates to 4,894 jobs created by travel and tourism, the Visit North Carolina figures show.

Social media is our friend

More than a quarter of people visit here based on something they saw on social media, according to a Fayetteville, NC/Cumberland County Visitor and Market Study for DistiNCtly Fayetteville, conducted last year by H2R, a market research firm headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. The study is based on 800 interviews of travelers living within 250 miles of the county, who have visited or are open to visiting.

The referrals from social were “higher than any other medium evaluated” — this despite the fact that fewer than 1 in 10 follow any local official social media accounts.

A welcoming atmosphere

Regional visitors to Fayetteville are an average age of 45, and half of them bring children when they come, according to the survey. They were most likely to describe Fayetteville and Cumberland County as historical, friendly, affordable, welcoming and down-to-earth, according to the survey. (Stop, we may blush.)

One-third of visitors are people of color, a higher percentage of whom report the area is diverse and welcoming. People of color are also among the groups who express the highest intent to come here, along with families, people ages 18 to 34, and oddly, residents. Sixty-three percent of visitors who are people of color have a positive opinion of Fayetteville, higher than the average.

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Tourists know there are things to do

The top five pursuits for travelers who come here are shopping; exploring the downtown/urban area; visiting military and historic sites; engaging outdoor recreation; and visiting museums, the survey found. It said “no one attraction reigns supreme,” but locations travelers mentioned by name were the Fayetteville History Museum, the Airborne Special Operations Museum and the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. 

The market study illustrates challenges, too: “Concerns include limited culinary experiences, little opportunity for rest and relaxation, lack of value for money, and a shortage of things to see and do. Likewise, few seem to view the area as a repeatable experience, which is reflected in a lower-than-average retention rate.”

The power of word of mouth

The study also listed one reason people had not yet visited was a shortage of recommendations from friends and family.

Among the report’s recommendations: “Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth.”

The report states that while people have less trust in advertising and government, they still have trust in each other.”

Heath believes in the power of word of mouth. He believes we can talk ourselves and rethink ourselves into a better place — and that will boost tourism and investment, he said. He added that people should get involved in clubs or other organizations, and “find a way to learn what our community offers.”

Heath likened falling in love with your city to falling in love with your wife.

And why wouldn’t he?

Cherry blossoms or dogwoods — there’s just something about your city, isn’t there?

“It's like when you say to your spouse, ‘I wish you could see how beautiful you are to me,'" he said.

Wait, there is more

Be on the lookout for a monthly column by Jennifer Radonich, the Community Development Manager for DistiNCtly Fayetteville, who will write about personalities, places and events in the Fayetteville area. She says her mission with the columns is to "make Fayetteville fall in love with Fayetteville."

Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559. 

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Learning to love Fayetteville. Surprisingly, travelers can show us how