By the end of July, Chattanooga’s Southern Belle riverboat will have had as many people on board as the Memphis suburb of Germantown has residents.
“We’ll have 30,000 to 40,000 passengers” by month’s end, says Jon Reinert, general manager of Chattanooga Riverboat Co. since 2013. “July’s by far our busiest month. We’ll have 3,500 to 4,000 per day over the July 4 weekend alone.
“We’ll see a little dip in August and September, then it’ll go back up in October, with the fall foliage. January’s our lowest month — we just run Saturdays. We’ll probably have 1,200 people the entire month,” he says.
Reinert says the Belle, a signature attraction in Chattanooga for nearly 40 years, weighs in at 98 tons, accommodates 500 passengers and has 2.5 million miles on her engines. In addition to the Belle, he adds, his family’s company, Reinert Group LLC, owns Chattanooga Ducks and the Mayor’s Mansion Inn.