Cloudy skies in downtown Jamestown the morning of the Solar Eclipse (April 8, 2024)
Businesses across Chautauqua County benefitted from visitors coming early for the Solar Eclipse.
Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dan Heitzenrater said Chamber staff observed increased vehicle and foot traffic starting last Friday in downtown Jamestown that continued through the weekend, “Saturday was pretty busy and steady all around town. And I know Sheila (Webster) stopped into a few local businesses while she was in the office as well and they were nice and steady busy. And then Sunday, early on, the report is it was pretty quiet downtown, but then it picked up obviously as soon as the visitors started waking up and rolling out of the hotels and stopping around downtown.”
Heitzenrater said more people were seen mid-Monday morning downtown, “Of course the Lucille Ball Comedy Center (Lucy-Desi Museum) is right across the street from our office and folks were lined up there before they opened the doors. And coming down the street here to speak with you the traffic has picked up quite nicely.”
Heitzenrater said Westfield and the Dunkirk-Fredonia area all had busy weekends, including Full Strength Coffee which opened specially on Sunday to a lot of foot traffic.
He added that the Chamber will collecting feedback from businesses following the eclipse to gauge how the event affected the local economy.
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