Menu
Eclipse gives area economic boost
SIKESTON — Tourists from all over the world and the United States flocked to Southeast Missouri on Monday, April 8 to witness the total solar eclipse.
Marcie Lawson, CEO of the Sikeston Regional Chamber, said she was happy with the turnout and the economic impact the eclipse had on Sikeston and the region.
“I don’t think that the economic impact of an event like the eclipse can be overstated in a town like Sikeston,” Lawson said. “It’s not every day that you have people across the United States coming to Sikeston, Missouri, staying in our hotels on a Monday in April.”
An estimated 5,000 people gathered on April 8 at the Sikeston Recreation Complex to watch the total solar eclipse. Visitors watched the eclipse not only at the complex, but also from downtown or in their hotel parking lots.
Lawson discussed the positive economic impact.
“Basically, what that means to have all of these people here, is that they are staying at the hotels, buying gas here, spending their money at restaurants and our retail shops and all of that goes into sales tax and having more funding for our city and counties because it’s out-of-town people spending all of that money in our community,” Lawson said. “Not to mention the kind of economic boom it gives to our restaurants and retailers. They got a boost from just having more people in town.”
Lawson also said how amazing it was to talk to visitors who had never visited the community before.
“We had so many people come into our office or out at the complex talk about how nice and clean our hotels were,” Lawson said. “We also had people tell us that we had such an amazing complex and an amazing park, even people that went downtown for the movie at Legion Park.”
Lawson said many visitors were surprised that such a small community would be such a great place to watch the eclipse.
“It’s really interesting and great to see your hometown, your community through a visitors’ eyes,” Lawson said. “We had people from Belgium, people from Minnesota, and people that drove in from California.”
Kathy Medley, director of the Sikeston Convention and Visitors Bureau, agreed.
“We had visitors from almost every state and several countries represented as well; Germany, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, and Ireland,” Medley added. “Everyone has been so complimentary of the community and the eclipse events.”
Lawson expressed her gratitude that so many people chose Sikeston for the eclipse, and she hopes that some of them will consider returning for the Hot Air Balloon Festival or the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo because they had a positive experience.
Other small towns in Southeast Missouri, including Charleston, saw an economic impact from the eclipse.
Todd Clodfelter of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce said that they definitely saw an economic impact.
“We did have people come in from out of state: llinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and we even had one couple come in from Paris, France,” Clodgelter said.
Clodfelter estimated the town had between 200 and 300 visitors for the eclipse.
Clodfelter said visitors dined at local restaurants, stayed in local motels, and ate at a local ice cream shop.
“There weren’t throngs and multitudes of people, but it did have an effect and brought some business here,” Clodfelter said.
New Madrid also felt an economic impact from the eclipse.
Christina McWaters, executive director of the New Madrid Chamber of Commerce, said the city had many visitors.
“We had visitors not only from inside the United States but outside of the country as well,” McWaters said. “Of course, whenever you have a tourism push like that, it’s definitely good for the economy.”
McWaters said they had their eclipse viewing from the Mississippi River levee, and a couple of locals sold some items.
“We had a lady that was selling home made pork rinds and pulled pork sandwiches and she sold out of everything,” McWaters said. “Then we had another retailer selling eclipse T-shirts.”
According to McWaters, the eclipse also had a positive economic impact on the New Madrid Historical Museum.
Jeff Grunwald, administrator of the New Madrid Historical Museum, said the museum saw an increase in visitors over the last week as a result of people traveling for the eclipse.
“Business really started spiking, I would say last Friday (April 5),” Grunwald said. “It was really big numbers for us, over those six days, I saw probably about 600 people, which is incredibly high for us than what we normally do.
Grunwald continued: “There were people from virtually every state. I had Alaska and Hawaii in the museum in the same day which doesn’t happen very often.”