At 50 Years Old, Pigeon Forge Is Still Growing
Pigeon Forge, a town once noted for attracting huge flocks of carrier pigeons, now attracts another huge flock – about 10 million tourists every year.
In 2010, gross business receipts for the town of 6,000 reached $806,026,590, a 5 percent increase over 2009 – which was a recession year.
Fifty years after its incorporation in 1961, the East Tennessee vacation mecca generates almost all its revenue from tourism, the fruit of a strategic marketing plan conceived by town leaders in the early 1980s, when gross receipts barely topped $50 million. Pigeon Forge is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, home to more than 200 stores, more than 100 craft and gift shops, dozens of hotels and restaurants and the main attraction – Dollywood.
The story of the success of Dollywood is closely intertwined with story of how Pigeon Forge went from catching the overflow from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to luring visitors from around the world.
