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Great Smoky Mountains Association Ready To Keep Great Smoky Visitor Facilities Open

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Published Date

December 21, 2018

The Great Smoky Mountains Association pledged Friday to see that visitor facilities inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park are kept open in the event of a government shutdown/NPS file

Barring resolution to the standoff with President Trump and his threatened shutdown of the federal government, the Great Smoky Mountains Association will provide funding to maintain some basic visitor facilities at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

“We know many people plan a trip to the Smokies during the holidays. Businesses in the surrounding communities also depend on visitors to stay in their hotels and eat at their restaurants,” GSMA CEO Laurel Rematore said Friday afternoon. “We want to do what we can to ensure visitors have access to park information, and in the event of a shutdown we know we can do that by keeping the park's visitor centers open during this busy period.”

In the event of a shutdown, the association would cover costs associated with visitor center staffing, restroom cleaning, and trash hauling should they be needed. Those services would be provided at the Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg, Tenn., Cades Cove near Townsend, Tenn., and Oconaluftee near Cherokee, N.C.

However, the association is not writing a blank check, and its resources could run out by January 1 if a shutdown lasts that long.

GSMA employs roughly 85 people who accommodate visitor needs on a daily basis. They do so at all four visitor centers located inside the park boundary and three outside-the-park visitor centers in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Townsend, Tenn., and Bryson City, N.C. Visitor services at these three locations would not be impacted by a shutdown, Rematore said.

“National parks across the country are the cornerstone of tourism economies, and the Smokies are no exception,” she said. "That’s why it makes sense to us as a good community partner to embrace our leadership role in this way and work toward supporting a healthy regional economy while simultaneously helping to preserve national park resources.”

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Comments

Submitted by [email protected] on December 21, 2018 - 7:39pm.

what a wonderful, generous thing to do!

I am proud to be a life member of the Great Smoky Mountains Association.

So get out there and let's do them proud. Buy your last minute gifts in the GSMA stores.

Danny Bernstein

www.hikertohiker.com


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