Pigeon Forge, TN - Southeast Tourism Society

SUCCESS STORY
PIGEON FORGE, TENNESSEE
Tiny Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (population 6,000), has
a billion-dollar economy. That’s no typo. This little city
next to the Great Smoky Mountains has a tourism-based
economy that attracts visitors who spend more than $1
billion inside the city limits every year.
That volume didn’t happen by chance. It happened
because city leaders decades ago identified tourism as
their industry, and they promoted it heavily and smartly.
People see that commitment and invest in tourismrelated businesses. That healthy climate continues to
produce expansions, new ventures and more jobs.
Pigeon Forge welcomes more than 10 million people
a year. Families, couples and groups visit more than 80
attractions, dine in almost 100 restaurants and patronize
300 retail stores. More than 3 million stay overnight in
14,000 lodging units (everything from mom-and-pop
motels to condo resorts to cabins in the woods). There are
convention-oriented cities that practically drool at the idea
of 14,000 rooms.
If you look back only to 1980, less than 40 years ago,
gross annual spending in the city was less than $51
million. It was in the early 1980s when the tourism
believers took the reins and the world began to change.
The first robust marketing budgets were about $400,000.
Today, they’re closer to $11 million.
In addition to advertising and marketing, Pigeon Forge
invested in special events and expansion of the traditional
tourism season. Indeed, early in Pigeon Forge’s tourism
life, it was strictly a warm-weather destination. When the
autumn color left the Great Smoky Mountains, visitors
stopped coming, and half the businesses in town closed
for winter.
The cure was called Winterfest. Millions of colorful lights
adorned city streets, huge decorations roosted on hilltops,
theaters added shows, restaurants stayed open and
festivals gave people reasons for winter visits.
CAL RIPKEN JR. AND
SOUTHERN GOSPEL MUSIC
In recent years, Pigeon Forge has made impressive statements of its faith in tourism through significant
municipal investments.
The first was in 2013, the $45 million LeConte Center at Pigeon Forge, a facility designed for all manner of
special events. It’s a big place. The footprint is 232,599 square feet, and its central space is 100,500 square
feet. What impresses event planners is that the big room has a clear-span, 30-foot ceiling.
That means it can accommodate 12 regulation-sized basketball courts or 20 volleyball courts for youth
tournaments that attract thousands of people, or it can be set theater-style for almost 12,000 people.
The concert setup got the attention of the National Quartet Convention, which relocated to there in 2014. That
celebration of Southern gospel music brings 40,000 people to Pigeon Forge for a full week every fall.
Just up the hill from the LeConte Event Center is another municipal facility, the $22.5 million Ripken
Experience Pigeon Forge, which opened in 2016. Ripken Baseball, a company led by brothers Bill and Cal
Ripken Jr. (Cal, of course, is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame), manages it and brings youth baseball
tournaments to Pigeon Forge nine months a year.
The Ripken Experience is a $22.5 million complex of six all-weather fields, each with the footprint of a
professional baseball stadium. The crown jewel replicates Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, an
impressive field itself, but Pigeon Forge’s has something Baltimore’s doesn’t – unobstructed views of the Great
Smoky Mountains. More information about Pigeon Forge’s exceptional travel experiences is at MyPigeonForge.com.
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TOURISM WORKS! 2016
It took a few years, but Pigeon Forge Winterfest turned the
city into a genuine 12-month destination. Employees who
once were laid off for months kept their paychecks.
The Great Recession created anxiety, but it proved only a
bump in the road to tourism success. Until 2008, Pigeon
Forge had never seen a year-over-year decline in tourism
spending, but the climb back began immediately. By
2012, spending exceeded the pre-recession total, and the
$1 billion threshold was broken in 2014.
Through that rough patch, the city kept promoting its
industry, and businesses continued to open or expand.
The congregation of tourism believers continues to grow
in Pigeon Forge.