Economy and tourism It was projected before the eclipse that there could be a $6 billion boost to the US economy due to the eclipse. The Mayor of
Rochester, New York,
Malik Evans, told reporters that the city was expected to bring in between $10–12 million to the city's economy from the Friday before the eclipse to the day of it. However, the day was cloudy. On April 12, New York Governor
Kathy Hochul announced record breaking tourism numbers between April 6 and 9, which was a 45% increase compared to 2023, with nearly one million visitors to New York State parks and over 5.5 million toll transactions recorded. One company that tracks
Airbnb data likened the economic impact of the event to
having Taylor Swift's concerts taking place simultaneously in every city along the eclipse's path. In the United States, the prices of
motels and
hotels near the path of totality increased up to 100 percent on April 7 and April 8.
Montreal saw a 20% surge in hotel occupancy for April 7 and April 8. An estimated 20 million people travelled to the path of totality within the United States for the total solar eclipse, exceeding the estimated numbers for the August 2017 solar eclipse 7 years earlier by four times. At
Yankee Stadium, the Yankees gave away eclipse T-shirts to the first 15,000 fans at the game that day. The eclipse had pushed the start time back by four hours.
Traffic . Traffic planners learned from the 2017 eclipse, and efforts based on this experience might have helped ease congestion in some areas, while others experienced severe and prolonged traffic jams. At least 5 million Americans had travelled to see the
August 2017 solar eclipse, and based on the mass traffic jams that had ensued following the eclipse, transportation agencies prepared for a potentially even bigger traffic problem, in the wake of the April 2024 solar eclipse. Highways in the area of totality saw significant increases in traffic, with departing tourists caught in
traffic jams lasting up to eight hours. Many of those trying to drive down
Interstate 93 in New Hampshire, for example, found themselves in jams lasting until at least 2 a.m. the following morning, resulting in numerous cars breaking down. Drivers and passengers spent four to six hours to pass through
Franconia Notch where Interstate 93 is reduced to a single lane in each direction. Major highways in the state remained crowded through
rush hour the following morning and into the afternoon. A similar effect was seen during the following morning's rush hour in northbound Interstate 65 in Indianapolis. In Vermont there were an estimated 60,000 additional cars and 248 inbound aircraft over the span of the eclipse weekend, with about 160,000 visitors coming into the state per Secretary of Transportation Joe Flynn. Drivers in southern Illinois leaving the region of totality to the north toward St. Louis, Missouri faced more than 80 miles of stop-and-go heavy congestion. Unlike other regions, traffic was lighter in Texas than the state's Department of Transportation had anticipated.
Animal behavior Zookeepers, naturalists, university researchers, and citizen scientists positioned themselves to observe animal behavior during the eclipse, some with the goal of comparing results with observations made during the
1932 and
2017 total solar eclipses, and others opening new avenues of animal behavioral research. Wildlife and zoo animals were observed along the path of totality and in areas that saw only a partial eclipse.
NASA worked with ARISA Lab, LLC, to recruit thousands of citizen scientists to help record sounds and observations of animal behavior during the eclipse. , a total of 3,372 written observations had been submitted by citizen scientists, and 770 recording devices had been registered with the project to provide sound and ultrasound recordings of wildlife and other ambient sounds before, during, and after the eclipse in a standardized way.
Wildlife took flight during totality of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse at Kinkaid Lake in the
Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. Changes in wild animal behavior were recorded during the eclipse, especially among birds. These changes were similar to those observed during the 2017 eclipse, but more pronounced.
Weather radar was adapted to monitor the activity of flying animals, and birds were observed to decrease their daytime activities.
Haikubox community science data from hundreds of locations found that at locations experiencing more than 99 percent obscurity, and in the absence of human vocalizations, birds generally stopped vocalizing, but that there was variability between locations and individual species responses.
Insects and
frogs in the wild were also observed making their nighttime sounds.
Cicadas in Arizona stopped singing when the Sun was 50% blocked during their partial eclipse. Wild
cricket frogs were observed in Fort Worth, Texas, behaving similarly.
Zoo animals At the
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium,
ostriches returned to their barn and began their evening rituals, such as preening and grooming each other. When the sunlight returned, the ostriches left their barn and resumed their daytime activities. A group of
elephants at the zoo gathered together and began thumping their trunks on the ground. A troop of
gorillas at that zoo also gathered at the door to their indoor enclosure, where they were normally fed each evening, and appeared to act confused and frustrated, as if having missed their evening meal. Two
aldabra tortoises at the same zoo were observed to rear on their hind legs and attack the door to their indoor enclosure, damaging the door's frame. Not all zoo animals reacted to the eclipse, nor did researchers expect them to. During the 2017 eclipse, researchers at the
Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina observed behavior changes in about 75% of species. Adam Hartstone-Rose, a biology professor at
North Carolina State University, hypothesized that the captive animals that did react may have been responding to the emotions of human zoo visitors. The zoo's director of zoology, Aurélien Berthelot, did not expect much activity from their mammals. For example, lions sleep up to eighteen hours per day. Some roared during the eclipse while others slept. Analyses of their observations are continuing. In Los Angeles, Danielle Johnson killed her infant when she threw her children off a balcony. She was referring to the eclipse as "the epitome of spiritual warfare" and an "apocalypse" on her Twitter account before the tragic incident. Others used it as cultural commentary, such as
Donald Trump, at the time running his second successful campaign for U.S. president, posted a video to his Truth Social account depicting his head as the Moon blocking out the Sun with the phrases "The most important moment in human history is taking place in 2024" and "We will save America. And make it great again" being seen in the video. Scientific study has not proven a direct link between solar eclipses and human mental health, along with sometimes grandiose ideologies that some people can harbor during natural spectacles. ==Responses==