Eclipse brings extra business to downtown Cape Girardeau

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – Downtown Cape Girardeau saw an influx of tourists to the area for the solar eclipse on Monday.

Liz Haynes is the executive director of Old Town Cape. She says a lot of the hotels and Air B&B are booked.

One downtown business owner says he has had as much revenue and foot traffic in one day this past weekend as he normally has in an entire week.

“A lot of our hotels and Air B&Bs are booked up. I was talking with a downtown business owner who said that he had as much revenue and foot traffic in one day this past weekend as he normally has in an entire week. So talk about being great for our local economy, right. It’s just amazing.”

“We lucked out with having totality, such a great view, right here in our downtown,” said Haynes. “It’s so great for our local economy. I think I’ve talked to people from every state except Alaska and Hawaii so far today. People from Europe came here from Cape Girardeau to support our community and view the eclipse.”

“How exciting is it that right in our back yards we are able to view this once-in-a-lifetime, for some people, opportunity. It’s really, really incredible. It’s moving. It’s awesome to be able to experience this right here to have people seeing it as a destination to view it right here with us.”

“It was really cool. I didn’t expect it to get as cold as it did and happen as fast as it did,” said Haley Wark from Utah who traveled to see the eclipse. “I don’t know how to describe it unless you see it, really.”

They had live music, yoga in the community garden and several vendors selling food.