HAYWOOD COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — Over two years after Helene hit western North Carolina, Haywood County is getting a chance to showcase what the community has to offer and how far it’s come by hosting the 70th annual Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) convention.
The annual convention has been hosted in areas across the world, such as Istanbul, Puerto Rico and New Zealand.
“Our annual convention has been held worldwide. We’ve been in destinations in Canada and across the United States,” said Jason Frye, chair of the 2026 convention and travel writer for freelance print and broadcast. “We go where there are interesting stories to explore and interesting people to meet.”
The 2026 annual convention marks the first time it’s been held in North Carolina.
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“It’s really an exciting moment for us; we’ve had smaller meetings with our chapters geographically divided and our councils, which are sort of divided by subject matter, but we’ve not yet met with the whole group here,” Frye said.
This year’s convention also marks the first time it’s been held in a rural area, Haywood County winning the bid.
“One of the reasons we won the bid to host this convention is we are looking at the two-year anniversary of Helene, and so what we’re really excited to show off to all these journalists, editors, photographers and their guests from around the world is that western North Carolina is back. We’re not a hundred percent back, but we are mostly back,” said Corrina Ruffieux, Visit Haywood executive director.
Frye, who is a North Carolina native, says the convention being in his home state is important to him.
“I live in Wilmington and even living on the coast, I know how important it is to tell the story about all of North Carolina, so for SATW to bring a couple of hundred travel writers and travel professionals to this spot out here in Haywood County is immensely important,” Frye said.
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After over a year in the making, all of Haywood County is coming together to prepare.
“The Visit Haywood team and all of our Haywood County partners, including Lake Junaluska and literally dozens of local businesses, volunteers, main partners like Cataloochee Ranch, Waynesville Inn Golf Club, downtown Waynesville, HART Theater, we’ve been planning over 30 different individual events that are combining to make [the] one-week convention,” Ruffieux said.
Over 200 writers will spend five days in the county working on professional development and business meetings. Faye says his main focus is the water in the county.
“We get to go out and experience and explore out in the region. I’m doing a tour that’s based on the fact that Haywood County is a headwaters county, all the water that originates here,” Faye said. “So I get to go explore the story of the pristine water, look at the watershed and the importance of it to that larger Haywood tourism story.”
Other writers have the opportunity to meet alpacas, do arts and crafts with the community, ride the Blue Ridge Parkway for the first time and meet with those affected by Helene.
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“We’re meeting with people who have been impacted and have now picked themselves up and dusted themselves off after the storm and have gotten themselves in a much better position, and we hope to add to that and continue with that recovery story by writing stories, doing Instagram posts, producing broadcasts,” Frye said.
The county hopes the stories, social media posts and broadcasts produced from the convention will reach potential visitors across the country, helping put Haywood County and western North Carolina back on travel lists.
“What we’re hoping is, again, people are inspired from their visit to write about our people, our places, our culture, our food, our music, all the above and share it with their audiences and just show the world why they should put Haywood County on their bucket list,” Ruffieux said.
The convention takes place Sunday, Oct. 4, through Thursday, Oct. 8, with daily tours showcasing what the county has to offer.
Source: wlos.com
