Shutdown’s Toll on Travel Mounts With No End in Sight
Photo Credit: The 18th Century Garden, part of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, is shown closed on Dec. 23 due to the government shutdown. Flickr / National Parks Conservation Association
Skift Take
There's no telling when this shutdown will end — especially since President Donald Trump mentioned "months and even years" on Friday — so the travel industry may need to prepare for a long-term impact.
Normally at this time, Steve McCorkle should be fielding reservations for the upcoming year at the bed and breakfast near Yosemite National Park where he is innkeeper.
The Blackberry Inn Bed and Breakfast in Central California is closed until March 15, and McCorkle is still waiting for the emails and calls to start rolling in as a partial government shutdown stretches into its second week, rendering some parts of Yosemite inaccessible. It's just the latest blow after fire forced the closing of Yosemite Valley over the summer.
"The phones are not ringing, the email inquiries not there in the mornings and the reservations for 2019 are not coming in as expected," McCorkle said in an email this week. "It is getting more and more difficult to operate a hospitality business in this area, and others, I'm sure."
Disagreements over border wall funding led to the shutdown on Dec. 22, and lawmakers and President Donald Trump have failed to reach a deal since Congress returned to work T
