- September 27, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
“Bittersweet.” That’s how Colleen Davis describes her business’s success during the pandemic.
“It’s bittersweet that we’re doing well and others aren’t,” Davis said in reference to the tourism surge in Haywood County that brought in a record-breaking $2.55 million in occupancy tax revenue for the 2020–21 fiscal year. This comes at a time when businesses across North Carolina lost billions of tourist dollars due to the pandemic, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Davis owns Jeweler’s Workbench, a jewelry store on Main Street in downtown Waynesville that bills itself as a “hardware store for women.” She also serves on the Haywood Tourism Development Authority board, so she’s familiar with both aspects of tourism in Haywood — as a small business owner and as an official.
“I’m so…
