The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority just approved a budget of nearly $40 million for the next fiscal year. By state law, the TDA will steer about a third of that into a sort of discretionary bucket called the Tourism Product Development Fund. Many in the community have different ideas for how that money should be spent.

This is the second half of our two-part conversation with Vic Isley, president and CEO of the TDA. We dig into that TPDF. I ask Isley why hoteliers and other vacation rental owners have such an outsized presence on the committee that chooses which projects to fund. I also challenge what I see as her broad definition of our local creative community and propose what Isley says has never before been proposed as a use for TDA funds.

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