Casino Announces Cutting Jobs

Monday's Asheville Citizen-Times noted Monday, what many of us knew well in advance, Harrah's Cherokee Casino is cutting jobs. Principal Chief Michell Hicks, who seems to be the Citizen-Times' go-to guy for any comment, even when it's an area in which Michell Hicks has no credentials, actually acknowledged that the tribe could be in for some tough times. He said back in November that tribal leaders started cutting costs, but that didn't stop him from introducing legislation recently to enhance his retirement benefits.
Tribal leaders have known since the casino's inception that the tribe can't only depend upon gaming as its sole revenue source. With the current turns in tourism trends, that now has happened. The tribe needs to take a good hard look at ways to develop the economy, other than Wal-Mart, which has been shown in some statistics to actually hurt local economies. In addition, the profitability of Wal-Mart isn't that rosy either.
Cherokee needs not only to look at ways to get more money out of the tourists currently coming to Cherokee, but how to attract new visitors and get repeat visitation. It also needs to look at ways to get residents spending locally. In all of these areas, tribal leadership has been failing.