Budget hotels in small Texas towns in the United States are asking for the moon as tourists descend on the area for prime solar-eclipse views.
The Wine Country Inn in Fredericksburg – a town in the “zone of totality” where eclipse viewing will be at its best April 8 – wants US$1,288 (RM6,097) with taxes for a king room the night before the astral phenomenon. It’s more than eight times the price the no-frills motel is seeking later in the week, according to its website.
About two hours southwest of Fredericksburg by car, The Inn at Uvalde is asking US$1,325 (RM6,274) for a queen bed, 10 times its normal rate. Similar pricing dynamics can be seen in the towns of Junction, Kerrville and Comfort.
Tourists enthused about the solar eclipse – during which the moon blocks the view of the sun from Earth – are opening their wallets to secure a spot in the narrow band of the country where the sun will be completely obscured. While that strip of the country runs northeast from Texas through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois and eventually on through Maine, the most committed stargazers are heading to Texas because of its relatively lower chance of cloud cover.
This is the first total solar eclipse visible in North America since 2017, and there won’t be another one covering such a large swath of the continent until 2045. Rental cars are already unavailable for some days at Austin’s airport.
RV camping grounds are also seeing an influx of visitors. At the Ingram Lake RV Park outside Kerrville, owner Irena Hajek said she was getting so many calls from prospective customers that she ended up converting 4.8ha of hayfield on her property into primitive sites with no hookups. The older portion of the site is sold out, and she said she already has deposits for 40 spots out of the 150 that can fit in the new space.
She’s charging US$350 (RM1,656) for three nights.
“There’s been huge demand from people wanting to sleep in their vans, a tent, just anything,” Hajek said.
Cities outside of Texas are getting in on the action and also seeing outsize demand.
Rooms at a hotel in Idabel, Oklahoma, are going for US$1,000 (RM4,730). The surrounding McCurtain County, with a population of 30,000, is expecting 100,000 people to visit, according to Jackie Lecrone, executive director of the local chamber of commerce. In Idabel, which sits in the southeast corner of the state, an already-planned event that weekend was rebranded as the “Miss Eclipse” pageant and the National Guard will be on site to help with traffic.
Lecrone said the tourists will be a huge windfall for small businesses there.
“Hopefully this one weekend will get them through the slow months,” she said. Her biggest concerns are traffic snarls and stores running out of food.
In Hot Springs, Arkansas, there are a bevy of eclipse- watching events and other attractions for tourists. A local yoga studio will host a “sound bath” for visitors to “harness the energy of the solar eclipse to set new intentions and manifest” goals. Nasa will do a public presentation.
For those who want to experience the eclipse from the sky, and avoid outrageous hotel fees, there are still options.
Delta Air Lines is offering two eclipse flights April 8. At publication time, the one from Austin to Detroit was completely booked. But there were main-cabin seats available on a route from Dallas to Detroit, for US$719 (RM3,403) one way.
Dallas-based carrier JSX is offering an eclipse flight that leaves Dallas at 1pm and will travel within the path of totality before landing back by 3pm. The flight will only take 12 people and passengers need to win a sweepstakes to get on board. – Bloomberg
