In a short time of posting a question on Facebook Wednesday morning, the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau heard from dozens of people planning to travel to St. Joseph to view the Total Solar Eclipse.
The Eclipse 2017 St. Joseph, Missouri Facebook Page posted, “5 MORE DAYS!!! Who’s coming to #StJoMOEclipse and from where???”
“In two hours we’ve gotten 59 comments, very little city duplication on where people are traveling from and they’re coming from everywhere,” said Beth Conway, Dir. of Communications with the CVB. “It’s really shocking and exciting to see how vast the range is for people coming to St. Joseph for this eclipse.”
Conway said it’s hard to know exactly how many people will be in St. Joseph on Aug. 21, 2017 for the celestial event.
“We don’t and we never will. We do know we’re 100 percent sold out in lodging for Sunday night and that’s about 1,200 hotel rooms so you can average four to a room,” Conway said. “What the facts are showing is that while we do know a lot of people are coming to St. Joe, a lot of people are staying with family and friends. While we can count lodging and count the camp grounds we won’t know all the people that come up and spend the night with friends and family and we won’t know the number of people who come up just for a day trip.”
While she said people will see a big increase in traffic Friday, she anticipates the biggest influx will take place Monday morning.
“Not just coming from Kansas City, coming down from Des Moines, coming down from Wisconsin, coming across from Chicago, definitely coming up from Texas, Arkansas seems like a really big draw,” she said. “We’re encouraging people to leave just as early as they possibly can, if not the night before so they don’t get stuck in traffic.”
She said people from other countries have also messaged her to let them know they will be in town for the eclipse as well.
Eclipse observers in St. Joseph will see about 2 minutes and 38 seconds of totality. CLICK HERE for more information on the eclipse in St. Joseph.