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Economic Impacts of the HWY 441 Landslide

Economic Impacts of the HWY 441 Landslide. 2013 Rockslide Conference Jason Lambert Director of Commerce, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. EBCI Division of Commerce.

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Economic Impacts of the HWY 441 Landslide

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  1. Economic Impacts of the HWY 441 Landslide 2013 Rockslide Conference Jason Lambert Director of Commerce, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

  2. EBCI Division of Commerce Mission Statement:  Provide vision, planning, promotion, and execution in order to drive community and economic development to enrich the lives of our people. • Consists of the Programs of: • Strategic Planning • Enterprise Development • Economic & Community Development • Destination Marketing

  3. January 16, 2013

  4. Immediate Response • Assembled PR team within a few hours • Visited site on Sunday, January 20 • Extreme concern over how long it would take to repair

  5. Strategy • “Someone needs to fix that.” • Aware of a very adverse business impact due to temporary and some seasonal closures • Central Message – CHEROKEE IS STILL OPEN • Media Coverage • Show that alternate routes from key points did not lengthen trip

  6. Assessing the Impact • Traffic Counts • Oconaluftee Entrance (2012) = 2,057862 • Gatlinburg Entrance (2012) = 3,321,556 • 60% of TN entrances come into North Carolina • Annual Visitation to Cherokee through GSMNP = 4,050,796 • Looked at historical trends • Winter of 2010/2011 • Entrances down almost 40% at Oconaluftee Entrance • I-40 Closures • Difficult due to seasonality

  7. Finding Opportunities • National Park Service offers Incentive for early completion • Opportunity for EBCI to match • $18,000 per day for early completion prior to May 15 • Gaming • Completion of Expansion • WSOP

  8. Minimizing the Effect • Project completed over a month ahead of schedule • Opened a primary travel corridor well before the main tourism season • Still dealing with bad information • Slower growth in Levy and Privilege Tax in February • Potential lost retail sales alone was close to $7 Million

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