Ark Encounter attendance improved slightly in April
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Attendance at Ark Encounter was slightly higher this past April compared to the same time period a year ago, but the numbers are still smaller than what we saw before the pandemic shut the place down. More importantly, the numbers are nowhere near what was projected when the Ark first opened.
Thanks to a public record request by local paleontologist Dan Phelps, we now have the numbers for April. You can read more background about how it’s calculated here.
The bottom line? Ark Encounter had 70,700 paying visitors in April. That’s a bit more than the 69,068 people who visited last April, but not quite the 79,908 visitors they had in April of 2019. Given the record attendance they had in February, this appears to be something of a letdown, but it’s still early to tell with so few data points.
Here are all the attendance numbers we know along with the Safety Fee that Answers in Genesis has paid to the city of Williamstown. (The public nature of that fee is how we know the attendance numbers at all.)
Over the past year, Ark Encounter has started to once again host on-site conferences. Like other tourist attractions, they rely on Spring Break trips, summer vacations, and warmer weather attendees in general. February’s record attendance may have been the result of a lot of people who were holding off visiting the park due to the winter weather, which could also explain why the numbers have cooled off a bit since then.
The Creationists have also attempted to lure people in through a large Gospel music festival and even a carousel for kids:
They now plan to build a makeshift Tower of Babel to bring in new visitors.
Keep in mind that the Ark’s parent company, Crosswater Canyon, received between $1 million and $2 million from the Paycheck Protection Program. Ham also raised at least $1,135,009 in a separate fundraiser to offset COVID-related losses. Despite all that, Answers in Genesis sued its insurers over pandemic-related losses.
AiG also recently purchased the former Toyota HQ in Erlanger, KY for $31.3 million. After "renovations and upgrades," the building will house their "educational hub." They clearly have money coming in from sources that don’t involve ticket sales.
Finally, remember that actual attendance is likely higher than these numbers represent because kids get in for free, as do members with lifetime passes. But giving away freebies to children and life members doesn’t help the local economy as much as drawing in first-time customers who are ready to spend money or conference attendees who are there for another reason.
All the stated attendance figures are far smaller than the 1.4 to 2.2 million visitors that Ark Encounter’s parent company predicted they would be pulling in several years ago. The total attendance in 2022 was under 750,000. Even the rosiest projections for 2023 don’t get to those earlier estimates.
(Large portions of this article were published earlier)
The Ark Encounter stands as a monument to ignorance. That so many people would pay to visit this place is a stark reminder of what intelligent and educated people are up against. This place does not fill me with hope for the future of our species.
So I got bored. I went and checked the Wikipedia page for Walt Disney World, and looked at the attendance records for various years. (Note these do have references listed.) I then took the April attendance numbers for the Ark park and multiplied by 12 to get a theoretical number for this year's attendance. As a round figure, 71000*12=852000; then I figured I'd keep going because why not at that point? Assuming that all of the above attendance is for adults only, I multiplied by 110, which is what a 3 day 'bouncer' pass costs (https://arkencounter.com/tickets/) and got $93,720,000. I must admit my brain kinda froze up for a moment there.
What I learned from all this is that the Ark Encounter is really apparently designed to separate gullible Christians from their money. It may never be on Disney's scale, but I doubt Ham cares; he's undoubtedly laughing all the way to the bank.