Paul,
Suprisingly, alot of the people here in Nashville aren't buying the Opry Mills concept. Currently tourism revenue is down considerably following the park's closing, and we just don't understand how a Mall can be a tourist destination. Lots of smaller shops that were built around the crowds being brought in by Opryland are now beginning to close or are in trouble.
From a business perspective, I understand that the hotel bookings for Gaylord (they have a huge motel here) are down considerably since the theme park has closed. I've heard (hearsay) that occupancy rates are down from 90% to around 80% now. Alot of big conventions have cancelled, because Nashville, country music, (Gaylord owns the cable channel CMT and owns a popular downtown tourist attraction "The Wildhorse" Saloon), Opryland theme park, and the Opryland Hotel used to be viewed as a good place to have a convention coupled with a family vacation. Apparently the draw is no longer as good, and bookings reflect this. Whether the mega-mall can recreate the draw is questionable IMO, but they're alot smarter than me. I really doubt they expected the falloff in hotel booking though.
Shane |
