A Joplin, Missouri, television station focused on one Route 66 business in nearby Carthage, Missouri, that’s feeling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and European travel ban.
The business taking the brunt of lack of business is the Boots Court, which dates to 1939. KOAM-TV talked to Deborah Harvey, co-owner of the motel:
The Boots Court hasn’t had a guest since March 23, and the 67 reservations it had set up for April, all gone.
“You know we’re talking thousands of dollars here. We’re getting no income because nobody’s traveling for the fun of it, they’re only traveling because they absolutely have to,” expressed Harvey. […]
“This time of year we expect a lot of people overseas and they make up 70% of the people who travel Route 66, and each person that comes to the United States, and the domestic travelers, spend $3,626 per person, just for traveling. Last year, the estimated people traveling were 140 million travelers, and if you take that times the expense of the money that they spend on the road…it’s right around $50 billion,” explained Rod Harsh, Director of the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce.
Without the business it normally sees, the Boots Court was forced to lay off its employees and stall renovations, and even though Harvey has applied for small business loan assistance, the process is slow-going.
Harvey said one-third of her business at the Boots Court was international travelers. That evaporated with President Donald Trump’s ban of flights from Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada in early March.
The domestic travel business dried up when the coronavirus pandemic heated up across the country shortly after that. In the U.S. alone, the virus has infected more than 840,000 people and killed more than 46,000.
The Boots Motel is one example of many of those suffering amid those developments. It may take a year or longer for Route 66 businesses to recover.
(Image of the Boots Court in Carthage, Missouri, by Jeff Kays via Flickr)
We stayed there a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. It was something we always wanted to do, but not when we first saw it back when its residents were somewhat questionable.
They have done a great job returning this classic place to us and we hope they will pull through.
Nothing like sitting in those classic chairs out front at night and watching the cars roll by.
RoadBoots
I’m hoping to stay at Boots in August so I mailed them $100 check today so they have money today. if my plans change and told them they can just keep the money. We have to preserve these places. Maybe others can be inspired to save these important places
And since this article was published, the owners have announced that the business is for sale. Ouch, ouch, ouch! This really hurts. I fear that the worst is yet to come. When all restrictions are finally lifted and we try to resume our lives, we’ll then see just how bad it really is, when many businesses simply do not reopen — ever,
I’ve been told the owners haven’t made up their minds whether to put the motel on the market.