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Local businesses struggling to stay open while Cades Cove is closed for two months

Restaurant owners in Townsend and Walland usually rely on local business to stay afloat in the winter, but with Cades Cove closed, traffic and sales are way down.

BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — The Cades Cove closure is affecting local businesses in a negative way. Restaurants and shops are struggling to stay open without the local and tourist traffic through the area.

Cades Cove shut down in the beginning of January for necessary repairs to the Bote Mountain Tunnel. Businesses found out the effect of the closure pretty quickly.

RELATED: Cades Cove is closed for the winter. Here are some hikes and drives to fulfill your outdoor adventure needs

Misty Morning Cafe in Townsend is a local mom and pop restaurant. The owners are used to less business in the winter, but not like this.

"There's nobody waiting outside the door, let's just say that," Kristy Holt, one of the owners of the restaurant laughed. "I mean the locals love us, but there's only so many of them."

Multiple businesses close in Townsend after the leaves fall off trees and tourism takes a dip. Misty Morning never had a problem with staying open, but the closure is forcing the owners to dip into their own personal bank accounts to pay employees.

"So it's important for us to be able to remain open and give them some income as well and it's a struggle to pay them right now," Holt added.

Down the road in Walland, the Snoring Bear Diner is feeling the same way.

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"We're in the same boat," part-owner Kim Watkins nodded. "We haven't been making enough to cover everything, so you know you pull from your own savings and you know what you put away from over the summer, but it's dwindling fast."

Watkins said every day in January has been extra empty. The two businesses they had opened next door were forced to permanently close because of plummeting sales.

Watkins explained business is down 60 percent, which is compared to a usual 20 percent decrease during this time of year.

"For breakfast we sometimes don't get a single soul in here now until 10 or 11 and our lunch crowd that we usually have has diminished greatly," Watkins said.

Businesses will have to hold on until Cades Cove reopens at the beginning of March.

Holt and Watkins said if anyone wants to help boost local business, the best thing to do is eat and shop locally. If you have the choice to shop big box or small business, choose the mom and pop places to keep them afloat.

RELATED: Bote Mountain tunnel repairs make progress; road to Cades Cove reopens in March

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