Fewer people are visiting some popular venues in Baltimore?s Inner Harbor, although ticket sales are up for other attractions, and officials want to know why.
The Maryland Science Center, the National Aquarium, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Center and General Growth Properties, which bought Harborplace from the Rouse Co., hope a previously planned consumer survey beginning next month on why visitors come ? or don?t come ? to the Inner Harbor will provide some answers, Maryland Science Center CEO Van R. Reiner said.
“We hope to get some information that we can use,” Reiner said.
Attendance at the Maryland Science Center is down between 5 and 10 percent in May and June compared to a year ago, Reiner said.
He speculated that attendance could be down because of higher gasoline prices.
“We?ve been at $3 a gallon since what ? December? It?s very difficult to say that?s not a reason,” Reiner said.
Attendance has remained strong at the National Aquarium; in fact, tickets sold out for this weekend on Thursday, spokeswoman Molly Foyle said.
While attendance is tracking with last year, the numbers are 6 percent below projections so far this year compared with the same period in 2005, Foyle said. “We are tracking head to head with where we were last year, so we are not really suffering in terms of attendance,” she said.
The aquarium opened a $70 million expansion in December that officials estimate will attract about 200,000 additional visitors within the next couple of years but not immediately, Foyle said.
Attendance numbers and ticket sales for some Inner Harbor venues have risen from last year, said Nancy Hinds, vice president of public affairs for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Center.
Tickets sold by the visitors center to Baltimore attractions are up 3 percent in the second quarter, Hinds said. The visitor?s center is promoting $150 worth of discount coupons on its Web site to attract customers, she said.
“We are hearing from our [business] members around the Inner Harbor that, anecdotally, it hasn?t been as busy compared to last summer,” Hinds said.
Rising airfares may also be discouraging attendance, Reiner said. The air travel price index rose 10.3 percent in the first quartercompared to the first quarter of 2005 ? the highest quarterly increase since 1995, according to the federal U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
