CLEVELAND — All eyes are on Cleveland this weekend as thousands of visitors travel to the land for the NCAA Women's Final Four, the Guardians season opener and the historic eclipse happening Monday.
Many visitors were shocked to see what Cleveland had to offer, like Leslie Onn from Washington D.C.
“I never thought of Cleveland as a travel destination, but it’s unbelievable how much it's changed. It’s such a vibrant and exciting city,” said Onn.
Richard Weaver is originally from Bedford Ohio, but lives in Pensacola, Florida. Weaver traveled to Cleveland with his family to see the eclipse, he said nothing looks the same in Downtown but it’s for the better.
“When I was a kid, we used to take the bus from Bedford into downtown to go all the big stores during Christmas time. I worked for the Coca Cola company during the summers driving a truck on Carnegie Avenue. That's all gone and Higbee of course is gone and now it’s a casino, everything has changed downtown but I still enjoy coming,” said Weaver.
Stephanie Kruger and her husband traveled from Asheboro, NC, and after growing up in Ohio, she’s excited to see the improvements in Cleveland.
“We would travel elsewhere when I was a kid, it’s to know that we can come back and now do vacations here, and I think people are realizing it's a little bit more international and diverse than it has originally gotten credit for. That it's not the industrial city that it used to be, there's a lot more to Cleveland than just development,” said Kruger.
The city of Cleveland is expecting anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 people on Monday.
Audrey Gerlach is the Vice President of Economic Development and Chief of Staff at Downtown Cleveland Inc. She said their main focus for this week was safety and preparing businesses for the influx of people.
"We’re definitely prepared if any safety issues comes up and a lot appreciated the reminder of we need to step up, we need to time things well. Many businesses we're seeing extended hours, greater staffing, getting creative and cute marketing that speaks to the final floor and eclipse,” said Gerlach.
