We talk with one of those businesses feeling the loss of business this summer, the Malone Golf Club, which has seen a significant drop in the number of Canadians crossing the border.
As we just mentioned, the Malone Golf
Club is one of the businesses taking a hit from Canadians
choosing to stay home this summer. Our Mountain Lake PBS summer intern
Christian Gratto, has the story. For decades, the Malone Golf
Course has welcomed thousands of Canadian golfers to their greens. With 36 holes and a history
dating back to 1903. This club’s current location
was dedicated by Babe Ruth just a month before opened in 1939. Recently, with tensions between Canada
and the United States, they have seen a drastic decline
in the number of Canadian visitors. Business is down about 20%,
which is a loss of roughly $400,000 in revenue. It costs about a million
and a half dollars just to maintain
our two courses here every year. And when you lose $400,000 of revenue,
that takes a bite out of that. So our managers have been cutting
where they can while maintaining
the same quality of play. If you play golf and you’ve played Malone,
you’ll know that that it competes with essentially
any other golf facility in the world. The club says it has been reaching out to Canadian groups
who have visited in the past above. Myself, another member of our committee,
have, you know, made those phone calls to packages
that are booked in previous years. And, by and large,
everyone really likes our facility. They really enjoy the experience.
They had here. But unfortunately,
due to geopolitical tension, they’ve decided to keep their,
their tourism dollars in Canada. They’ve also been in touch with both state
and federal lawmakers looking for help. My concern is we’re not getting any
response from our federal representatives. State representatives are trying. They’re doing what they can. Local representatives are doing
what they can. There’s not a lot of money to go around,
but they’re doing what they can. And while they’re unhappy
about the cancellations this summer, they say they aren’t worried about it
lasting long term. I have faith,
I have faith in our customers. This place
is a lot more than a golf course. It’s really special to a lot of people. I know a lot of people understand
the situation that we’re facing. And I know that people are going to come
through for us in Malone, for Mountain Lake PBS. I’m Christian grotto.
