The park’s attendance boost does not seem to be resonating with hotel stays in Warren County, according to Phil Smith, executive director of the Warren County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Hotel taxes — which allow the CVB to market the county’s many tourist attractions — were flat between 2009 and last year. Smith said he did not have figures yet for November and December, but projected they’ll pull in $1.7 million total for 2010, which equals proceeds from 2009.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/attendance-numbers-rising-at-areas-amusement-parks-1052888.html?cxtype=rss_local-news

They did day trips because they spent the motel money buying pizza and Cokes for the kids?

LINK - Columbus Dispatch

Columbus Zoo broke their annual attendance record (2nd year in a row), bringing in 2.37 million guests in 2010.

Last year was an attendance-buster at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

The zoo beat its 2009 record of 2.2 million visitors by bringing in 2.37 million guests in 2010, zoo officials reported.

Contributing to the crowd was the opening of Polar Frontier in May, which brought polar bears back to the zoo and moved brown bears Brutus and Buckeye into a new home with a pool.

Births always boost attendance, and last year those included two rare bonobos, a gorilla, three otter pups, three flamingos and two silver-leaf langur monkeys.

I bet the zoo's in zoo spending was up, too...

Which is contrary to the decrease in in park spending at the Cedar Fair parks. Too bad Cedar Fair doesn`t break out the attendance figures by park like they used to. It would give a very telling story of what parks are doing good and which ones are struggling. But those days are over. That information has become proprietary.

I bet the zoo's in zoo spending was up, too...

Exponentially so. Food sales have been solid, but get this: You are welcomed to bring your own food and drink into the zoo. They have also made a mint off of the 4 rides offered within the zoo boundaries: The Grant Carousel ($1 per), North America Train Ride ($1 per), Journey To The Islands Boat Ride ($1 per), and the Pony Ride ($3-$4 I think, and not a lame pony-in-a-circle, rather a nice winding wooded course). The POP wristbands for all the rides in Jungle Jack's Landing have also been selling very well to guests visiting both the Zoo and Zoombezi Bay.

And I seriously, seriously doubt the head of the zoo grossed over $4,000,000 in compensation last year...not to mention about $15,000,000 in options....

Terp, student of comparables