CHARLESTON, W.Va. – They’re still collecting the numbers at the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau on the impact of the Boy Scout Jamboree to the City of Charleston.
CVB spokesperson Jama Jarrett said the economic impact will become more apparent after the scouts have returned home and start talking about their experiences at the Summit Bechtel Reserve.
“Hopefully their experience was so great that they go back and talk about it and it will generate future interest in Charleston and in West Virginia,” according to Jarrett.
The scouts didn’t see a lot of Charleston unless they arrived early and a few did. Jarrett believes the city will get the most mileage out of some articles written by particular author.
“The official Boy Scout writer came in to Charleston for a day. We went down and picked him up at Fayetteville and brought him up and let him spend the day in Charleston,” explained Jarrett. “We showed him around. He’s already posted a couple of articles on his blog and on the website and on social media about Charleston and his experience here.”
One place in Charleston where Boy Scouts abounded was Yeager Airport. About 1,000 scouts flew into Charleston before the Jamboree and even more flew out on Wednesday as the event wrapped up, including two charter flights to Texas.
“Those were about 175 scouts and leaders on each of those,” said Yeager Airport Director Rick Atkinson. “The airport was just packed [on Wednesday] with scouts starting at the first flights in the morning all the way to the last flights in the evening.”
But things didn’t quite work out as planned for one scout troop from out west. The final US Airways flight didn’t arrive in Charleston. That meant it couldn’t take scouts back out.
“We had 20-some scouts from Utah that stayed in the [airport] conference room [Wednesday night] because every hotel room in Charleston was booked.”
Atkinson believes the real impact on the airport probably won’t be seen until next summer when scouts start arriving for Base Adventure Camp at the Summit. Atkinson believes now that scouts and their leaders have seen how convenient the airport is to the Summit more will choose to fly to and from Charleston.