News

Tourism industry braces for crowd of sky watchers

By Nancy Waclawek, Published: July 31, 2017

How do you plan for a once-in-a-lifetime event?

That’s the challenge facing tourism officials across Western North Carolina – not to mention all of us who live here – as the area prepares to experience the total eclipse of the sun on Aug. 21.
It’s the first total eclipse in the continental United States since 1979, when five states in the Northwest witnessed the sun’s blackout, and the first in this area since the 1800s.
In Hendersonville, sky watchers need to set their watches for 2:38 p.m. on that day to experience the maximum eclipse that the city will see — 99.76 percent of the sun will be obscured, according to Christi Whitworth, the director of learning experiences at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in Rosman.
To experience 100 percent totality you’ll have to drive to Brevard or points west in Transylvania County or southeast to Travelers Rest or Greenville in South Carolina.
Be prepared. You’ll be on the road with thousands of like-minded seekers. Think hurricane evacuation and you’ll have an idea of how many people will be in their cars, trying to reach the prime spots to see this extraordinary astronomical event.
“We wish we knew how many were coming,” said Clark Lovelace, executive director of the Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority. “It’s a unique thing. We’re doing the best we can.”
“The larger hotels, motels and inns have been sold out,” although there may be some independent rooms still available, he said.

‘Traffic at a standstill’

Lovelace expects traffic to number in the thousands, but he doesn’t know whether it will be 10,000 or 40,000. “Traffic will be at a standstill. People will be pulling off to the sides of roads,” Lovelace said. “The Sheriff’s Office will have officers assigned to specific areas” to try to provide traffic control.
Expect that day to be a traffic nightmare everywhere in the path of the total eclipse, he and Whitworth warn.
“Be in place by Sunday night,” Whitworth told the Rotary Club of Hendersonville on July 18. “Park and stay till Monday.”
Her advice: Find a mall or shopping center parking lot and camp out if you don’t already have plans for lodging at hotels or with family and friends in Transylvania County or in Greenville, Columbia or Charleston or other points along the path of totality.
Whitworth expects people to be driving from all over the country to experience the phenomenon everywhere in the 68-mile-wide band of totality. The eclipse will enter the United States at Lincoln City, Oregon, and exit at Charleston and continue over part of the Atlanta Ocean. The rest of the country will experience a partial solar eclipse.
Beth Carden of Henderson County’s Tourism Development Authority expects Henderson County to absorb the overflow of guests who want to find lodging near the band of totality. Unlike Transylvania County, the business community here did not react strongly to doing something special for the eclipse, she said.
“We’ll definitely see an influx in hotels and eating and shopping,” Carden said. But businesses “did not take it upon themselves to do something special. August is a big month and (the eclipse) is an added bonus for us with the Apple Festival” that happens the first weekend in September.

In Brevard, a four-day event

In Transylvania County, “There’s a lot going on in the four days around the eclipse,” Lovelace said, and most of the events are sold out.
PARI advertised 400 tickets at $100 each and sold out in two weeks, Whitworth said. PARI is a radio observatory that was established in the 1960s. She said this is the first time a radio observatory has been in the path of totality, so NASA scientists will be on site to conduct experiments.
The Brevard Music Center plans four days of activities focused on the eclipse. Only the movie events on Saturday and Sunday night still have tickets – “Apollo 13” on Saturday and “2001: A Space Odyssey on Sunday.” Lyle Lovett and His Large Band on Friday night and the Monday eclipse experience (at $100 per person) sold out long ago.
The Earthshine Discovery Center in Lake Toxaway also sold all its $30 tickets fast.
If you leave your house at zero-dark-thirty, you might reach these opportunities:
• Brevard College – 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., an all-day experience, with eclipse viewing glasses provided. Bring your telescopes and other viewing devices.
• Gorges State Park – gates open at 5 a.m. for the first 1,500 cars. Gorges also has planned family-friendly events from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 19 and 20.
• Rosman High School – The eclipse viewing event has sold out all tickets (priced $25 to $40 to benefit the school), but you might be able to shoehorn into the town for a viewing spot and your own picnic.
• Oskar Blues Brewery – The Solar Eclipse Party starts at noon with music, a food truck, bouncy house, viewing glasses and, of course, beer.
Will there be a way to measure the economic impact of the eclipse? Lovelace and Carden aren’t sure. Hotel occupancy rates and sales tax receipts might provide some indication when compared year over year, but it will be hard to gather and compare data on dining, shopping and gas receipts. But it has been a great marketing opportunity for Western North Carolina, Lovelace said.
And if it’s cloudy during the afternoon of Aug. 21? The show still goes on – darkness will fall, you’ll still need to wear your solar glasses during the whole time of the partial eclipse, nature will react and scientists will get their measurements.
But everyone has their fingers crossed that it will be bright and sunny day —for all but 2½ minutes.

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For details about the events in Transylvania County, go to https://www.visitwaterfalls.com/eclipse/