TOWNSEND, Tenn. — Visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have a new place they can go to rest and learn more about the area's nature, animals and history. The Great Smoky Mountains Association announced it opened a new welcome center on Tuesday.
The new welcome center is located at 7929 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, offering twice the retail floor space as its previous location. Before opening the new building, the association had to share space with the Blount Partnership. Now, both locations have space to grow.
“This new visitor center allows us to support Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a larger scale, with much more information and merchandise for park visitors to explore,” said Laurel Rematore in a press release, CEO of the Great Smoky Mountains Association.
The new location also has dedicated space for membership information, merchandise and education displays that were made with help from the National Park Service. It also includes a log cabin-style porch. It also offers space for private events upstairs.
Employees also have a larger break room, a larger stock room and an audio recording space for the creative team to record audiobooks and podcasts.
It started welcoming visitors with a soft opening on Dec. 15, and will not be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. It will also be open year-round, except for Christmas Day.
The GSMA manages seven other visitor centers across the Great Smoky Mountains.
