This member is the president of one of the natural wonders of the U.S.: Ruby Falls.
Running a business is hard work, but when you’re the president
of a natural wonder, there are a handful of other challenges written in stone.
Hugh Morrow, president of Ruby Falls LLC, tells us how he deals with tourism
and what makes his job special.
Name: Hugh Morrow
Business: Ruby
Falls, LLC
Location:
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Employees: 50
full-time
When is the first time you visited Ruby
Falls?
I
was in first grade.
What is the best part of your day?
The
best part of my day is anytime that I’m interacting with our guests. I’m doing
it all day long, anytime I walk out of the office.
What are some of the biggest challenges
you are currently facing and how are you dealing with them?
I
think one of the biggest challenges we have now is that we have a set, natural
attraction. So the geography or the topography is set because we are a natural
cave. Dealing with our growth and attendance, and dealing with the crowds and
keeping the customer satisfaction up is one of the tougher things that we do
because we can’t enlarge, so to speak, because it’s a cave. So, we have to
figure out ways to deal with the added crowds.
What makes Tennessee a good place to do
business?
It’s
very competitive. Our business is different because people are visiting us and
we don’t export or send anything out because we are an attraction. The central
location is a very pleasant place to be.
What is special about Ruby Falls?
Well I think the neat part about Ruby Falls is that the people
kind of lose sight of it if you’re here every day. It’s that we are a
stationery business. It cannot be exported. It cannot be outsourced because it
can’t be relocated. It’s a natural part of our environment here. We’ve been
listed as one of the top seven natural wonders in the U.S. and in the top two
underground waterfalls in the world, which is pretty neat considering we’re in
little old Chattanooga. I tell the locals, if you want to take an elevator ride
260 feet into the mountain, walk 2,100 feet inside a mountain and be 1,120 feet underground in front of a 145-foot waterfall, there’s only one place in the
world to do it. And that’s right here.
