LEILA FADEL, HOST:
More than a year after Hurricane Helene shut it down, a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina is still closed. Blue Ridge Public Radio's Gerard Albert III reports on businesses along the tourist attraction.
GERARD ALBERT III, BYLINE: The National Park Service manages the Blue Ridge Parkway. It says parts of the road won't reopen until late next year at the earliest. That's bad news for the businesses along the iconic route. One of the affected areas is Mitchell County. Kelly Jones is in charge of the county's tourism authority.
KELLY JONES: I see, like, our retail and our shops along the parkway that are really struggling.
ALBERT: One of those struggling businesses is the Switzerland Inn. It's one of the few hotels along the parkway and usually operates from March through November. In addition to lodging, the sprawling property includes a pub and a restaurant. Dave Roe is a manager at the hotel.
DAVE ROE: If you come in from the south, from Asheville, there is nothing to stop at. So by the time people get to us, they are very hungry.
ALBERT: But the scenic drive from Asheville, North Carolina, has been blocked since Hurricane Helene washed away parts of the parkway last year. It makes it harder to get to the hotel through other roads.
ROE: We could tell this year - our summers are really busy, normally. But this year, it was probably less than half the traffic that we could see.
ALBERT: The hotel usually employs about 80 people during the nine months it's open, but it's been operating with less than half that.
ROE: We've gone to a skeleton crew a lot of times. And so it disrupts not only us as a business, but the people who we staff.
ALBERT: Now three counties affected by the closure are creating a special map. It'll show open businesses and how to get to them without using the parkway, says Jones with the Mitchell County Tourism Authority.
JONES: We're going to make this tour where you hit all the highlights and you get to go visit these places on the parkway. That's what we think we can do to represent these businesses and get the word out there that they're open and they need you.
ALBERT: They hope to publish the map in the spring. Meanwhile, the Switzerland Inn will stay open for the winter season for the first time, says Roe.
ROE: It's going to be fun. A lot of drinks, different Christmas drinks and stuff from the bar. And it's going to be a really great time to come up here and experience what the mountains have to offer up here during the winter.
ALBERT: He hopes that winter tourists will come and help recoup some of the losses since Helene.
For NPR News, I'm Gerard Albert III.
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