Outside of hotels, rest of Gatlinburg business community slow to pick up

Knoxville News Sentinel

GATLINBURG - Most downtown Gatlinburg businesses reopened after a few days of repair and cleanup, but that doesn’t mean they’re back at full capacity.

After a positive re-opening on Dec. 9, downtown Gatlinburg has been slow to recoup the normal holiday traffic.

"Since the fires, we're down about 50 percent. 50 percent plus, I'll put it that way,” said Eric Hensley, vice president of Deux Ron Inc., which owns the Space Needle, Arcadia, Slice Pizza Bakery, The Captured Escape Game, and Iris Theater in Gatlinburg. "We were up 25 percent over 2015. Now we're down 50 percent over 2015.”

Business gets slightly better each day, but Hensley blames media reports for the slow traffic. Not enough of the undamaged main drag has been shown; some people even believed the steel Space Needle was gone, he said.

"A lot of people come in and they believe there may not be a Gatlinburg at all to come to. A lot canceled vacations,” Hensley said.

Smaller attractions suffer too, such as the Museum of Salt & Pepper Shakers. Business in winter is never wonderful, but it’s usually better than now, desk clerk Minnie De La Cruz said.

"I've been here every day, and it's been very dead,” she said.

The museum survived, but the family operators lost their house nearby to the fire, co-owner Andrea Ludden said. While the streets of Gatlinburg are fairly full during the day, many of the current visitors are gawking at the fire damage instead of shopping or visiting attractions, she said.

“They all want to see the destruction,” she said.

Gatlinburg hotels getting back to busy

Nine-tenths of people who came more than 150 miles to visit Gatlinburg on its first post-fire weekend had been there before, according to an Internet Marketing Expert Group survey of 520 visitors.

Nearly two-thirds of those people said there was less damage than they expected, and everyone said they’d recommend Gatlinburg to others.

Tourism in Sevier County as a whole had $2 billion in economic impact, putting it third in the state for 2015, according to Cindy Dupree, director of communications for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. There is no estimate yet of how much this year’s fires will hurt that total.

From his seat at a pay parking lot just off the Parkway in Gatlinburg, Mike Mathis can see the ruins of burned houses on surrounding hills. But the business strip looks as though nothing happened, he said.

While business is still a little slow, “it’s definitely coming back,” Mathis said.

Tammy Banks, manager of a Flapjack's Pancake Cabin location in Gatlinburg, thinks so too.

Obama orders federal funds to aid Sevier County fire victims

"It's picking up. It started slower but it's picking up," she said. "The mountains are our biggest asset, and they're still here.”

Ken Kooch, manager of Fudge Shoppe of the Smokies next to Ripley's Odditorium in Gatlinburg, also blames media for his lack of business.

"Of course it's going to be slower because the national news is telling people 70 percent of the town is burned down. What burned down is people's residences outside of the city,” Kooch said. "National news is killing us."

National reports stopped after the fire, leaving the impression of widespread destruction; and even calls for donations on local radio may drive away tourists who listen online, he said.

As goes Gatlinburg, so goes Pigeon Forge. Business at Smoky Mountain Fantasy Golf has been very slow since the fire, attendant Kevin Long said.

"It's starting to pick back up slowly," he said. Now he’s getting customers from other states, and is assuring callers that the mini-golf course will be open Christmas Eve.

Questions linger on wildfire alerts during Gatlinburg fire

Days before the main fire encroached on Gatlinburg, it was smoky enough to drive visitors out of Pigeon Forge, said Clell Ogle, owner of Factories Outlet China & Gift Mart. People who had planned a week of vacation in the area would leave early because of smoke, he said.

Business is still the slowest Ogle has seen in 32 years, at his Pigeon Forge store and one near Interstate 40.

"Ours is off a good 50 percent since the fire," he said. "November was the worst November we ever had," and December is worse.

Though traffic has returned, fewer people are actually buying, Ogle said.

He wants to see local leaders draw national attention to the area’s survival and reopening, but Ogle doesn’t blame all of the downturn on the fire. Disasters such as floods in areas likesuch as Alabama and Louisiana, which usually furnish many visitors for Sevier County, may have prevented trips too.

“When you have disasters like that, that affects everything,” Ogle said.

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