New cabins, renovations coming to Mammoth Cave National Park
MAMMOTH CAVE, Ky. – Mammoth Cave National Park is a hotbed for tourists.
Thousands flock to the park every year to see the natural beauty the caves and landscape have to offer.
Now, the park will soon be able to accommodate more guests who would prefer to stay overnight in one of the park’s lodging options.
“It’s something we’ve waited for for years,” said Rhonda Clemmons, Edmonson County tourism director.
New cabins are in the plans to ensure additional guests can spend the night on the park’s grounds.
“Greater opportunity for more people to come, especially during the peak season,” added Clemmons. “We can just welcome more people.”
The existing cabins will also receive some upgrades, which Clemmons feels are long overdue and much needed.
“Some of those are 1940-ish, so to bring them up to date is just fantastic,” she said.
The Edmonson County Tourism Commission relies heavily on the room tax that is associated with these cabins and hotel reservations.
“The tourism commission runs solely off of the room tax,” said Clemmons. “That is the way that those monies come back into Edmonson County and help us advertise Edmonson County and welcome new people back. That’s huge for us to have additional cabins.”
There will also be renovations made to both the hotel and restaurant.
However, none of these upgrades are expected to affect business.
“Existing hotel will still be in business and they’ll work around it,” Clemmons mentioned.
Business as usual is especially good news to Edmonson County.
When business is booming at the park, the local economy reaps the rewards from tourism dollars.
“It brings money back into the community,” said Clemmons. “Our tourism dollars we use for printed publications, our website, the 800 line, all of our postage. It truly funds our entire office.”
At the moment, there is no specific timetable as to how long it will take to complete these changes, but officials are hoping to get started on the renovations as soon as possible.
