Ark Encounter attendance improved slightly in May

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Attendance at Ark Encounter was slightly higher this past May 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.

Ark Encounter (Image via Shutterstock)

Thanks to a public record request by local paleontologist Dan Phelps, we now have the numbers for May. You can read more background about how it’s calculated here.

The bottom line? Ark Encounter had 82,585 paying visitors in May. That’s a bit more than the 81,378 people who visited last May, but not even close to the 90,803 visitors they had in May 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:

Hemant Mehta @hemantmehta

Ark Encounter, the Creationist theme park in Kentucky, just opened its new carousel to the public. Your kids can now ride dinosaurs. Like Noah did.

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)

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