Sunday, March 26, 2000
Tourism takes local economy for a ride
Amusements - from coasters to casinos - are big draws
BY CLIFF PEALE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As thrill rides like the new Son of Beast roller coaster at Paramount's Kings Island get bigger, faster and more expensive, so do the stakes for tourist attractions all over the region.
Officials at the Warren County amusement park hope a two-year, $20 million investment in the Son of Beast will spur ticket sales for an entire generation, the same way The Beast has done since it was built for $4 million in 1979.
“We think it'll drive ticket sales for a long time,” said Tim Fisher, who came to Kings Island as general manager after helping to build the $72 million “Star Trek: The Experience” attraction in Las Vegas.
“When you make that kind of investment, you want to make sure it's unique.”
Whether it's Kings Island, the casinos in southeastern Indiana or the new Kentucky Speedway set to open in June, owners are preparing for the lucrative summer season. They all are facing the realities of the industry: Without something new or spectacular, you are yesterday's news.
With the national economy booming, and with annual tourist spending growing to more than half a trillion dollars nationally and $3 billion locally, the stakes are higher than ever not only for the largest attractions, but for museums, restaurants, hotels and thousands of other Greater Cincinnati businesses.
“It's big business, that's what it is,” said Joan Kaup, vice president of tourism at the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Fast and furious. People are saying, "I want more and I want it faster.'”
Don Helbig, a 37-year-old Fairfield resident, said he has ridden the Racer at Kings Island more than 11,000 times, and ridden The Beast nearly 2,500 times.
He said it is important to keep customers' attention with new, more thrilling rides.
“Once people go and they've ridden The Beast, ridden the Racer, ridden the Vortex, there's a lot of other parks they could go to,” Mr. Helbig said.
Many tourists aren't even waiting until summer to take advantage of the main tourist attractions, according to the Travel Industry Association of America. Americans will take 152.5 million pleasure trips during March, April and May, an increase of 3 percent compared with last year, the group said.
It is uncertain what effect rising gasoline prices might have on summer-season travel. But the biggest attractions here clearly are gearing up for a record year.
George DeBolt of DeBolt Unlimited Travel Services in Pittsburgh said his company takes about 5,000 people a year to the casinos in Lawrenceburg and Rising Sun, and several thousand more to Kings Island.
“No question, if the casinos weren't there, we wouldn't be coming to the general area at all,” he said.
The business has gotten so competitive that tour operators like Mr. DeBolt get as many as 200 mailed promotional pieces a day, he said.
All of the major Greater Cincinnati attractions have upgraded significantly during the past several years, most prominently:
• The Reds with the heralded acquisition of Ken Griffey Jr.
• The zoo, which will celebrate its 125th anniversary this year, added the Manatee Springs exhibit in 1999.
• The Museum Center added the Children's Museum in 1998.
Even smaller attractions — such as Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg and the Playhouse in the Park in Mount Adams — benefit from those major attractions.
Perfect North added two runs for the just-completed season and probably will add several more runs next year after celebrating its best winter season ever, co-owner Chip Perfect said.
Laura Adleta, president of a local touring company called Cincinnati & More, said most of the groups touring this area build packages around major attractions like the Museum Center, the zoo or BB Riverboats.
“That's what's bringing them in,” she said.
New powers
To market all of this, the Convention and Visitors Bureau is allowing customers to design their own vacation packages for the first time on its Web site, cincyusa.com.
Since early February, they have been able to book packages on the Web, and since then, packages sold have increased 27 percent compared with the same period last year, Ms. Kaup said.
When it comes to bringing visitors through the turnstiles, no one locally does it faster than Argosy Casino in Lawrenceburg and Grand Victoria Casino in Rising Sun, the newest powers on the local tourism scene.
Even local tourism officials are hard-pressed to explain the astronomical numbers, including more than 10 million visitors combined last year. Argosy alone produced revenue of $332 million and operating earnings of $123 million for its Alton, Ill.-based parent company.
The 300-room hotel at Argosy opened in June 1998, but thousands of visitors every day travel to the casino without visiting other area sites.
Washington Limousine in Cincinnati runs one round trip six days a week to Argosy from Government Square downtown and the Avondale Town Center, carrying an average of about 20 people per run, officials there said.
Out-of-town touring companies also are targeting Argosy and Grand Victoria. For example, U.S. Gambler in Indianapolis sends daily buses to each of the four riverboat casinos in Indiana.
“It's very popular,” said Joyce Bohannon, manager of U.S. Gambler. “Some people stay the night at Argosy, but many come back that day.”
The competition for Argosy grows this year. Grand Victoria in Rising Sun will open its golf course in May, and a new casino is scheduled to open later this year in Switzerland County.
Argosy currently claims about two-thirds of the local gaming revenue, and General Manager Arnold Block said the market should grow with another competitor.
“I think that just touches more people,” he said. “As competition increases, the market usually grows. We just don't know where it'll level off.”
The two riverboats are different from other local attractions in several ways: First, they don't target families. Second, they are financed by some of the country's largest hospitality companies, with huge budgets and ability to finance multimillion-dollar projects.
Argosy Gaming Co. operates five riverboats, but the $240 million Lawrenceburg complex easily is the biggest and produces more than half of the company's revenue and more than three-quarters of its profits.
Argosy owns about 57 percent of the partnership that controls the Lawrenceburg site. Conseco Inc., the Indianapolis insurance giant, owns 29 percent.
In Rising Sun, Hyatt Corp. operates the Grand Victoria Casino. Last year, the complex attracted 3.2 million visitors, with gaming revenue of $144.4 million.
Hyatt has tried to market Grand Victoria as a total entertainment complex, capped by the golf course opening this year, spokeswoman Ynez Taylor said.
“We think it definitely will bring more people in,” she said.
Traveling 80 mph
That is the goal at Kings Island as well. Attendance there has been relatively stagnant the last few years, totaling about 3.32 million people in 1999.
To boost that, officials are hoping for new customers drawn by the looming Son of Beast, the only looped wooden roller coaster in the world.
The structure includes about 2.5 million feet of lumber, more than triple that used to build The Beast. The 12-acre site once held the park's wild animal habitat.
During the drop from the 218-foot peak, riders will travel nearly 80 mph, Mr. Fisher said.
“The Beast was built with the idea that there would never be anything like it, and that stood for more than 20 years,” he said. “That's what we hope for from Son of Beast.”
Paramount, the entertainment conglomerate that owns Kings Island, will continue to add major attractions, Mr. Fisher said. Although the park covers about 365 acres, there still are nearly 400 more to develop, he said.
In 2001, the emphasis will be on “infrastructure,” like restrooms, entrances, adding more shaded areas and other amenities, he said.
“I really want to get back to some of the fundamental things,” Mr. Fisher said.
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