Wilmington-based author Jason Frye recently published two handbooks with Avalon Travel Publishing that bring attention to area tourism: Moon North Carolina (April 2014) and Moon North Carolina Coast (May 2014). He has another one in the works that covers the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“North Carolina is the sixth-most visited state in the U.S.,” Frye said. “The more you can do to help people realize how much there is to do here, the better to increase tourism across the whole state.”

Frye has written for national publications, as well as local ones including the Greater Wilmington Business Journal, StarNews, WILMA and Bald Head Island’s Haven magazine. He also is a food blogger for Our State Eats. He lives in and travels the area, writing firsthand about activities such as kayaking and hiking as well as places to eat.

When Frye happened across the ad to revise the North Carolina edition of the Moon handbook, he knew he’d found a familiar way to bring tourism dollars to the area. While there is a great deal of information online, there are areas where cell phone or Internet reception is not available and travelers who prefer having printed materials available.

“I love Bald Head Island, but I don’t have cell phone coverage there, so I like having a book in my hand,” Frye said.

The books are good for people who like to do their travel in small chunks, families looking for multi-generational activities or those who are just curious about what the area has to offer.

“One of the sad facts about the U.S. is that we work more than any other industrialized nation, and we take fewer days off,” Frye said.

To help create time-related options, the books offer suggestions for travelers who are planning trips for a weekend, five days, a week or 10 days.

Frye’s second book focuses on bringing visitors to the coast.

Avalon Travel Publishing previously had a coastal Carolina version, which included South Carolina and North Carolina. Demand for materials opened the opportunity to focus closer to home, and Frye wrote a guide that caters just to the North Carolina coast.

“It gives me an opportunity to write for a larger audience, to be able to say to someone who isn’t familiar with North Carolina to come visit us instead of New York,” Frye said. North Carolina is seeing a lot of tourists from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Brazil, he said.

“The book doesn’t exist without people wanting to visit North Carolina and spend their money here,” Frye said. “I hope the guidebook pushes people to explore and try something. I write because I’m curious, and I hope it peaks someone else’s curiosity.”