Hatfield-McCoy Trail saw ridership growth despite hurricane damage
Flooding and wind damage as well as widespread power outages hit Mercer, McDowell and Wyoming counties from Sept. 25 to 28 last year, later prompting a federal disaster declaration in Mercer County.
Downed trees blocked parts of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails system and while the trail system's employees were able to clear the fallen debris and get the system reopened, the damage Helene inflicted in North Carolina, South Carolina and other parts of the South reduced ridership.
Many of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails' riders coming to Mercer, McDowell and Wyoming counties are from the Carolinas, but they stayed home during the trail system's busiest time of the year to deal with hurricane damage. This led to lodging cancellations throughout the region.
The trail system's permit sales are measured from Nov. 15 to Nov. 15.
Jeffrey Lusk, executive director of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails Authority, said Friday that despite last year's storm damage, permit sales actually increased.
During the 2023 season, there were 92,655 permit sales. This increased to 93,830 sales during the 2024 season, an increase of about 1.59%. These figures were presented this week to the authority's board of directors.
"With the hurricane, we were afraid we would have a flat year, but instead we had some growth," Lusk said. "We were really excited to have growth last year. That was a big deal for us. We got reopened fairly quickly, but our ridership for North Carolina was just devastated."
Losing ATV tourists coming from North Carolina hurt lodging and businesses in Mercer, McDowell and Wyoming counties, he said.
"They have the highest percentage of visitations from the south," Lusk said of ATV lodging facilities. "They getting more people from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. More northern counties get most of their guests from states like Ohio and Michigan. It's just geography. Depending on where your lodge is located, you get a different mix of visitors."
The numbers of people planning on visiting the Hatfield-McCoy Trails this season appears to be increasing.
"It probably won't be until late spring before it gets back to normal," Lusk said about ridership. "We believe we're going to have an amazing spring. The lodging providers I've talked to said their forward reservations look really good."
The trail authority has a $2.5 million, five-year marketing plan, according to information provided by Lusk. The goal is 5% annual growth over a five-year period which started in 2022 and concludes in 2027 with the goal of selling 110,878 permits during that last year.
Overall, the goal is to increase total annual permits by 24,000 during the marketing plan's five-year implementation period. This growth is expected to increase the trail system's total economic impact to over $75 million.
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
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