Declining Park Visits and the Cherokee Economy

As much as some among the tribe's tourism industry would like to deny it, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is its greatest tourism draw, second only to the casino. The Asheville Citizen-Times posted a story today citing the decline in visits to the national park. While it still shows increases in tourism spending in 2007 over 2006, 2008 has yet to be determined.
Park officials said they expect spending this year to either be equal to or slightly higher than 2007. Two things need to be taken into account when those figures are released. One is gasoline prices have been much higher this summer, the height of tourist season. The other is prices everywhere for everything have been going up. Inflation needs to be part of the equation, which when accounted for could actually show a decrease in consumption.
This story comes on the heels of the tribal PR machine making it out as though the tribe has been defying the odds of the national economy. Tribal PR Coordinator Lynne Harlan, in a column for the Citizen Times, even states as an old saying, "We didn't know there was a depression!" Businesses in Cherokee were closing their doors during good economic times. Plenty of business owners in Cherokee know full well the realities of the economy, and for a tribal official to make such a statement shows that when times take a turn for the worst, and they will, the tribe will be woefully unprepared. It's not like it was in 1929 when the tribe was poor to begin with. The tribe has assets, it's seen unprecedented economic growth in the past 10 years, and tribal members, through casino per capita payments, have been able to purchase items previously unattainable. That's highly likely to take a reverse trend in the next couple of years as businesses close, as fewer people with disposable income visit the casino (which has admitted that profits are down), as the reduction in consumer spending in Cherokee results in a reduction in tribal levy, that will mean tribal leadership will need to make some tough choices. So far, tribal leadership seems not only unconcerned, but completely ignorant of reality.