Last week’s solar eclipse drew interest among Jackson County residents, and some already are thinking about the next one in 2024.
On April 8 of that year, the area will see 100 percent totality with the moon crossing between the Earth and sun and blocking out the sun’s light.
On Aug. 21 of this year, Jackson County only had 94 percent totality.
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Areas with complete darkness for a matter of minutes were flooded with visitors from all over the world to see the unique event.
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was a popular destination, as more than 100,000 people visited the region around that city of more than 32,000 just to see the total solar eclipse.
Since Jackson County will be in the “path of totality” in 2024, the area can expect to see people here April 8 to catch a glimpse of it.
Arann Banks, executive director of the Jackson County Visitor Center in Seymour, said local businesses will need to keep that in mind.
Seymour hotels typically have people staying here for events such as Seymour Oktoberfest, the Indy 500 and the Kentucky Derby, but an event like the eclipse could result in a sellout.
Plus, while people stay here, they will visit local attractions, restaurants and stores.
“We have to keep our eyes open here for those types of events and grab a hold of them and take advantage of it because that’s a great tourism draw,” Banks said.
Those places will want to open a little earlier, stay open a little later and do other necessary things to make sure they are ready for customers, she said.
On the day of this year’s solar eclipse, the visitor center hosted local amateur or ham radio operators, who set up their mobile radio equipment inside and antennas outside to pick up signals and chatter from other radio operators across the country. The Jackson County Emergency Management Agency also was set up in the parking lot.
Once the eclipse started, Banks and her staff got some food, headed outside and put on their eclipse viewing glasses to experience it firsthand.
“It was a fun day. It really was,” she said. “We had a lot of phone calls and drop-ins.”
That’s also when conversations occurred about the 2024 eclipse, which will stretch from Texas to Maine.
“We actually kicked around the idea of doing some big event at Freeman Field,” Banks said of the airport in Seymour.
Banks said planning such an event would take a lot of preparation, but it may be difficult to gauge how many people may be in the area.
“Something like this, how would you even measure the expectation of a bunch of people staring into the sky for two minutes? How do you plan it? So we’re going to try to be good at it in seven years,” she said. “It’s going to be big, and we’ll definitely be ready for it. We’ll do something to make sure we’re ready for it.”
Banks said she plans to contact tourism officials in Hopkinsville and also in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, to see what their numbers looked like for the total solar eclipse.
“Masses and droves of people come into the communities,” she said. “We will see what they did to entertain that kind of crowd.”
Banks said while recently visiting one of the Seymour hotels, someone told her they had received a couple of calls from people inquiring about rooms in seven years.
Officials with the hotels near Interstate 65, however, all said they don’t book that far in advance. That typically ranges from 10 months to a year out.
Hotels may consider offering blackout dates on and around April 8, 2024. That is when room rates are established because an event is expected to draw a lot of people to an area.
Renee Taylor, director of sales at Fairfield Inn & Suites in Seymour, said that can be done as long as the event shows just cause and notice is given.
“It’s not about going in and shooting up rates,” she said. “It’s about saying, ‘I can’t do a $95 rate, so we’re having to do an event rate.’ It’s like anything else. It’s supply and demand.”
Taylor said hotels should maintain price integrity based on supply and demand.
“It can be a very fine line,” she said. “That’s why we as hotels have that right to say, ‘We have this event we’re going to be using as a blackout date because I can sell my hotel out at this rate.’”
Taylor said she plans to contact hotels in the “path of totality” to see how they planned for and handled this year’s eclipse so she will know what to do here in 2024.