Join NC High Country Host

View 2024-25 Membership Packet

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North Carolina High Country Host is a membership marketing organization serving the Northwestern mountain counties of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Watauga and Wilkes. HCH was formed in 1980 as a cooperative marketing organization to promote the High Country area through pooled capital in the form of memberships invested by area tourism businesses. Since then, High Country Host has won many prestigious awards and has become a model for several other host organizations throughout North Carolina and beyond.

Our primary mission is to attract visitors to the NC High Country through extensive marketing "off the mountain" and then direct them to member businesses. These marketing efforts have, in the past, included ads in magazines like Southern Living, National Geographic, Woman's Day, summer cable TV campaigns and many others.

In addition to our cooperative marketing efforts, High Country Host maintains the Official Regional Welcome Center located between Boone and Blowing Rock (and within eyesight of the Blue Ridge Parkway), a Web site (www.mountainsofnc.com), produces and distributes 80,000 copies of our full-color Mountain Vacation Planner, and provides many other marketing services to its members and to visitors.

Each month, High Country Host averages 3,000 visitors and 600 phone calls that come into the Regional Visitor Center. In addition, the web site receives over 30,000 unique visits per month and continues to grow.

Benefits of Joining High Country Host

• Opportunity to participate in cooperative advertising
• Listing in our full-color printed Mountain Vacation Planner
• Opportunity to purchase advertising in the Vacation Planner
• Phone and Visitor Center referrals from our Visitor Center staff
• Brochure placement at Visitor Center
• Benefits from www.mountainsofnc.com web site:
  • Listing on our online business directory and in appropriate blog posts
  • Link from our web site to yours
  • Calendar featuring member events
• Free Advertising in our monthly e-newsletter that reaches over 60,000 monthly
• Marketing Assistance
• Legislative monitoring
• Representation on several tourism-related boards
• Access to tourism research and statistics

Testimonials

"High Country Host does an excellent job of attracting visitors to our area through its marketing. Just as importantly, they do a great job of helping our visitors find lodging, shops, places to eat, and things to do to make their visit a success. Happy customers come back and they also tell their friends to come. All types of businesses need to be part of HCH's marketing and service efforts."
-Harris Prevost
Grandfather Mountain