Eclipse watchers set to provide economic boost to mid-Missouri

Nickie Davis, owner of a local clothing store Muse has been advertising merchandise that puts a spotlight on Monday’s solar eclipse for awhile now. One shirt proudly boasts the phrase “Moon Chaser” and, while supplies lasts, some will come with solar eclipse glasses.

“We’ve already kind of seen an influx of people looking for the shirts and things like that,” said store owner Nicki Davis. “I think it’s going to be pretty huge.”

For Davis, Monday is more of a half day since most of her potential customers have other things on their mind. But come this weekend, the deals (and drinks) will be flowing.

“The weekend is going to be, I think, the big mass crowds everywhere,” she said. “We’re open early until super late at night. We’re going to have different and fun eclipse related drinks, lots of fun sales.”

Already tourism experts are predicting the population of Columbia could double from its usual 120,000 people. But all of it is weather dependent.

“It’s one of those things you can’t under prepare for,” said Convention and Visitors Bureau director Amy Schneider. “Because of football weekends, because of large events, we are prepared but I still think it’s going to be bigger.”

Because of its uncertainty, Schneider said she couldn’t predict exactly what kind of economic impact the city could be facing but they’ve prepared local businesses like Davis’s for the population boom.

“We’ve asked some of the large businesses to keep people on the business site and to keep them off the streets,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of businesses are doing that and having special events for their teams.”

ABC17 News estimated that since the 3,800 total hotel rooms are close to being 100 percent full on Sunday, there could be at minimum 7,200 extra people staying in Columbia.

“We are not used to having full Sundays and Mondays, especially in August,” said Schneider. “It’s the weekend of student move-in so we will already have an impact of parents moving students in so it’s on top of the regularly scheduled folks coming in.”

But that’s not taking into account new population totals coming from Airbnb guests and those staying in the sold out MU dorms. All 94 available dorm rooms are sold out and most hold up to 4 people. Combine that total with the 469 guest using Airbnb in Columbia, then there’s an additional 845 folks. Then there are the day-trippers or people staying with friends and family. That’s easily where the population could double.

Airbnb Midwest spokesperson Ben Breit said they’re asking their hosts to be tourism ambassadors for out-of-town guests.

“For the eclipse, where so many of these much more rural communities are going to have this spotlight, these are places that don’t have hotels and people don’t know about local merchants and small businesses,” he said. “We’re really trying to work diligently with our hosts in those rural communities, many of whom are hosting for the first time.”

According to the United State’s Labor Department’s annual Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average tourist spends about $106.50 a day while traveling. That average in Columbia, with the minimum hotel guest, Airbnb and dorm room stays, is already almost $900,000 a day. That number could very well clear the millions mark over the weekend in Columbia.

Because most of the people in town will not be from the area, Schneider said she hopes native Columbians can be patient.

“I think we need to be welcoming to those that are coming here,” she said. “We want visitors to have a great experience and we want to give them a reason to come back to Columbia.”

Davis said she’s just interested to see what Columbia will look like with all the extra people around.

“I think downtown is going to be an epicenter of madness,” she said, laughing.