Who watched the eclipse in Erie? Tourists from Nepal, Germany, more

Organizers feared gridlock as crowds descended on Erie for the solar eclipse on April 8.

But the reality, according to a new report from VisitErie, Erie County's tourism promotion agency, looked a lot more like the empty-streets desolation of the COVID-19 lockdown.

It wasn't that the crowds didn't come. But the cancellation of school for thousands of local students and the fact that many employees worked from home helped to keep traffic off the street.

And when visitors did arrive — as roughly 100,000 did — they spread out, flocking not to one single spot, but to vistas and events across the county.

Even then, a new report released Wednesday by VisitErie determined that the gray skies and light rains might have kept some at home while others headed west in search of better weather.

"It wasn't just Erie," said John Oliver, CEO of VisitErie. "We noted that, along with others along the path of totality, that attendance still wasn't as high as we thought it might have gone. The weather was a factor."

A manageable crowd

Although skies cleared and the sun came out, Oliver said he went home that day without a clear sense of the crowd.

But thousands of motorists, especially those heading south on Interstate 79, drove home with a pretty good perception that the crowd in Erie County had been substantial. Traffic, which began to slow down in southern Erie County, remained slow until somewhere near the Slippery Rock exit, according to witnesses. In some cases, Oliver said, two-hour drives back to Pittsburgh took five hours or more.

Ultimately, VisitErie didn't have to guess at the attendance numbers.

Data provided by Adara, a platform that tracked credit card usage, found that more than 30,000 people who lived 50 miles or more from Erie, used their credit cards in Erie County between April 5-8. Based on an estimated 2.5 travelers per cardholder, VisitErie determined there were about 100,000 visitors. Ultimately, the number of visitors would include those who paid cash or didn't buy anything.

There is another way to measure the economic impact that eclipse-chasing visitors had on the local economy.

Based on VisitErie's share of the local hotel bed tax — the tourism promotion agency collects 3%, while ErieEvents receives 4%, — Erie County tallied $9.2 million in hotel receipts during April.

VisitErie's share of the hotel tax was about $90,000 more than in April of the year before. And while April's total hotel receipts fell short of a busy July or August, Oliver said April's numbers were built on the strength of a few days, not 31 days of prime vacation season.

Where's the crowd?

Matt Greene, operations director for Presque Isle State Park, said the park counted 6,550 cars on the day of the eclipse, roughly 23,000 people.

It was a manageable number and the reason why most people were able to drive out of the park in about an hour. But Greene was prepared for more.

So where did those extra 100,000 people spend the roughly four minutes when the moon blocked the sun?

Erie was often identified as the only Pennsylvania city in the path of totality. But unfettered views of the eclipse could be found all over the area.

The VisitErie report suggests visitors spent time in every corner of the county at more than 40 different watch events, including 3,000 at Pennwest Edinboro, 2,500 at Penn State Behrend, more than 1,500 at the Erie Zoo, 2,200 at Port Farms near Waterford, 1,300 at Lake Erie Speedway, 630 at UPMC Park and 500 at Liberty Park.

"With 100,000 people, if they were all at the park we would have had massive congestion," Oliver said. "But the fact that they were in North East all the way to Edinboro showed how we were able to have the crowds dispersed. You didn't have to be in one location. You could be virtually anywhere. Local people could watch from their back yard."

18 months of planning

The eclipse did not not sneak up on Erie.

Led by VisitErie, a broad range of community members, including law enforcement, municipalities, schools and universities, tourism-focused companies and the media took part in an extensive planning process that sought to prepare for every contingency.

In some cases, that might have led to being over prepared. Consider, for instance the matter of eclipse glasses.

VisitErie bought 30,000 pair to distribute. That's on top of large orders placed by Penn State Behrend, Country Fair, Pennsylvania State Police, PennWest University Edinboro and Gannon University.

In the end, VisitErie reported, there were more than enough to go around.

New markets for Erie

VisitiErie, which advertises heavily in the Pittsburgh market, saw those efforts pay dividends. Data from credit card sales shows that Pittsburgh accounted for more than a third of all visitor spending between April 5-8.

Other leading markets, in order of the amount they spent, were Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Buffalo and Harrisburg.

And while Oliver talked to visitors from Nepal, plenty of other businesses welcomed visitors to Erie County for the first time.

A small business in Corry saw new customers from as far away as Las Vegas. A restaurant in western Erie County welcomed visitors from six states. One businesses reported visitors from California, Oklahoma, Poland, Germany and Canada.

Data from Zartico, a national research company that uses cell phone data to track visitor activity, showed a 104% increase in visitor spending during a four-day period.

Oliver said he hopes that the eclipse will provide benefits to Erie that extend well beyond a few days in April.

"That's one of the things that really bodes well for us in the future," he said. "There were a lot of new markets that we never had exposure to in the past."

Contact Jim Martin at jmartin@timesnews.com