After an eight-year tenure that saw enormous growth in local tourism — and plenty of criticism that locals were being left out of that success — the head of the Explore Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau has announced her departure.

Since 2012, Stephanie Pace Brown has guided the organization, which executes the marketing and sales programs under the direction of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. The TDA, which manages a $25 million annual budget derived almost solely from a hotel room tax, has been wildly successful in boosting tourism to the Asheville area, which hosts nearly 11 million annual tourists, including 3.9 million overnight visitors.

More:TDA addresses coronavirus impacts, call for local assistance

But it's also become almost equally controversial, with some governmental officials and key community players questioning its distribution formula and support of local projects and infrastructures. Some critics have even called for the TDA's abolition as the area has seen an explosion in hotel building, heavy use of local infrastructure and the creation of thousands of tourism jobs that sometimes leave people struggling to afford to live here.

Most recently, people in the community have called for the TDA to release significant funds to help workers left unemployed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brown told the TDA board April 2 she's leaving for a private sector job in another state, but she did not disclose where or what company it's with. Regarding her tenure here, Brown was upbeat about it during an interview April 3.

"I think there's different lenses that people look at tourism through," Brown said. "I've loved my job, and working with tourism industry people. I think the CVB is highly respected and appreciated by the industry members we served. I do wish the benefits of tourism were more widely appreciated and we had a more collaborative environment to address the challenges."

Brown will step down after her employment contract concludes at the end of June. In a press release, the TDA said it will appoint an interim executive to "ensure continuity in Explore Asheville operations and guide the search process for Brown’s replacement."

More:Should Asheville, Buncombe hotel tax money be used for coronavirus relief?

"I am fortunate to have been offered a new opportunity last September that enabled me to fulfill my responsibility to the BCTDA through the end of this fiscal year," Brown said in the release.

Brown’s annual base salary is $238,000, plus performance incentives and benefits. In 2018 and 2019, respectively, Brown received bonuses of $65,516 and $69,000. Her current contract calls for a $45,000 bonus when it expires.

Brown, 52, said the CVB "had a lot of accomplishments in my tenure, and I'm proud of my work." Through its Tourism Product Development Fund, Explore Asheville had issued $44 million in grants to 39 local projects, ranging from ball fields to the Asheville Art Museum renovation and expansion.

Brown came to Asheville in June 2012, after serving as president & CEO of the Alexandrian Convention & Visitors Association in Virginia.

Its own entity

Also under Brown's leadership, the former Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau split from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce to become Explore Asheville. It also relocated to new offices and became its own nonprofit organization in July 2017.

Hotel stays and visitation have also steadily increased during Brown's tenure, driven by heavy spending on advertising and other promotions in markets throughout the country.

TDA Board Chairman Gary Froeba said he's worked closely with Brown for many years.

"She is one of those rare people who brings compassion, strategy and a keen sense for the bigger picture to everything she does,” said Froeba, who is also the managing director at the Omni Grove Park Inn. “Asheville is a special place and Stephanie has been a champion for the businesses and people who make Asheville the vibrant mountain community that we all love.”

Asheville City Council Member Julie Mayfield, who has served as a non-voting member of the TDA board since January 2016, said in an interview that Brown was "wildly successful by the measures of her job." That success also created problems, though, as locals questioned whether Asheville was being overrun by tourists.

More:Asheville, Buncombe officials and hoteliers approach agreement on occupancy tax change

"She led the TDA through this period of massive growth, which some people are not supportive of and think obviously the TDA work has gone way too far and brought way too many people to Asheville," Mayfield said. "The fact is, there's been an enormous period of growth that's been an economic boon to the city, and she has led it through all those changes."

Splitting from the chamber, while contentious at times, "turned out to be an effective" move, Mayfield said.

Friction part of decision to leave?

Brown declined to say if the contentiousness surrounding tourism the past couple of years influenced her decision to leave.

TDA Board Member Andrew Celwyn said via email April 2 that Brown "has not spoken to me personally about her departure, but she certainly has seemed unhappy in her job for this past year or so.”

Mayfield, who has also endured her share of vitriol over hotel votes on City Council, said it "would be naïve to say the critics of the TDA — and often of her personally — did not play a role in her decision."

"She's a very high-profile public figure, and in that role you're often criticized not only for what you do but who you are, and that's hard," Mayfield said. "That happens to us as elected officials, and it can be wearing."

The TDA has shifted its positions over the last year or so, agreeing to let local hoteliers seek a change in the hotel room tax disbursal formula, which currently requires 75% of room tax funds go toward marketing and 25% to the Tourism Product Development Fund. Hoteliers plan to ask the General Assembly to change that so a third goes to the TPDF and two-thirds to marketing.

The TDA also has become more amenable to helping local governments with infrastructure projects that will help locals and tourists alike.

"If we could rewrite history, I would love for the TDA — collectively, the staff and the board — to have come to that place of not just realization and understanding but a willingness to do something different sooner than they did," Mayfield said. "You could argue that should’ve started back in 2015 when we were in negotiations around the room tax."

More:Tourism Development Authority shows support for hotel tax change, authorizes budget increase

The General Assembly agreed to boost the hotel room tax from 4% to 6% in 2015.

Too much tourism, one critic says

Andrew Fletcher, a local musician, served on the TDA-created Community Leadership Council for a year until resigning this week, citing an "opaque, confusing" and disappointing process to reshape the Tourism Development Product Fund.

"I think from the TDA’s perspective, Brown’s tenure was a wild success," Fletcher said April 3. "But from the perspective of a community suffering under the weight of unsustainable over-tourism reliant on paying low-wages to their workforce, it’s led to catastrophic development trends. What’s been good for tourism businesses has been deeply damaging to the life and livelihood of the tourism workforce, and I hope that her replacement recognizes that better than she did."

Fletcher would like to see the TDA abolished and a new organization created to distribute room tax money "for greater public benefit."

For her part, Brown said she hates to leave the TDA in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis, which has devastated the local tourism industry and shut down hundreds of restaurants and small businesses. The job was offered last year, and the business was willing to wait until her contract expired, but Brown wanted to give the board plenty of notice.

Brown touted her accomplishments in the departure announcement, citing the TPDF, as well as a TDA effort to pioneer a new festival and cultural events fund. It's supported by ExploreAsheville.com website advertising revenue and has provided $580,000 to multiple community events.

“It has been a privilege to represent this special place, inviting visitors to support our local businesses and seeing so many tourism entrepreneurs succeed," Brown said in the release.