Local campgrounds blame high gas prices for slump in business

Local campgrounds blame high gas prices for slump in business

April 29, 2006

By ERICA ESTEP
6 News Reporter

TOWNSEND (WATE) -- Vacationers are feeling pains at the gas pump just like the rest of us. Now local campgrounds are reporting a slump in business.

The owners say it could have a negative effect on the local economy.

Fewer families are visiting the Tuckaleechee Campgrounds in Townsend than this same time last year.

"We've had a lot of cancellations. The ones that would come like from Illinois, somewhere like that, right now we don't have them," campground manager Nadine Lindsey explained.

Lindsey says all you have to do is look around and you can tell the high gas prices are hurting business. Almost every car in the lot has a Tennessee tag.

6 News found one couple that drove their big RV all the way from Texas. They have been parked at the campground for over a month and they say they're glad they weren't driving high prices as high as they are now.

They hope they go down because they say filling up their big RV, on a good day, costs $200.

Danny Strickland and his family are staying closer to home. Strickland explains, "We probably won't take near as many trips. Gas prices hurts everybody."

The Stricklands have noticed fewer fellow campers too.

"I don't think there is near as many this year as there normally has been. This is a good community, it's been growing for years, so it's a shame if it does hurt it.", says Danny.

Trish Redmon traveled from North Carolina, but is cutting her vacations shorter this year. Redmon says, "This is what you used to do when you had no money and now you've got to have money to do it."

Redmon is staying close to home too.

"It's going to be limited, no doubt about it," she told 6 News. "We're usually camping a lot, going to a lot of different places. Like, we went to Key West a couple years ago, but we wouldn't even think of going to Key West right now. We couldn't afford to."

Campground managers won't know until the end of the year how much the high price of gas will cut into their profits. Nadine Lindsey explains, "You have to make it in the summer to make it in the winter. So, you've got to have the people come in. If it doesn't go down we wonder if it will hurt more."

Lindsey says her business is cut in half compared to this same time last year.