The new upside-down wooden roller coaster is a hit, but aging visitors and fewer families coming to town could make it challenging for Branson to draw larger crowds to its hotels and stages in the coming years.
This year, Silver Dollar City, which unveiled its $10.5 million Outlaw Run coaster in the spring, has been a shining star for the hilltop town of 11,000. Through Sept. 22, the theme park has brought in 1.45 million visitors, up 7.4 percent from the 1.35 million who came for the rides and crafts in 2012.
The activity has helped put Branson on pace for a 2 to 3 percent increase in visitors this year, said Ross Summers, president and CEO of the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau. Last year, an estimated 7.3 million people blew in to 76 Country Boulevard.
Tourist numbers typically mirror the city’s sales tax, which is up 2.4 percent through July.
“The roller coaster at Silver Dollar City has played a significant role. It has gotten tremendous publicity. They’ve used it heavily in their advertising and we’ve used it in ours, and that’s driven a lot of people,” Summers said.
Brad Thomas, general manager of Silver Dollar City Attractions, said the attendance increase is particularly dramatic considering there was snow in Branson in early May. Between March 15 and May 7, the park was down 50,000 visitors compared to the same period in 2012.
But once the cold weather broke, Thomas said the park drew 14 percent more visitors May 7 through Sept. 22, compared to the previous year.
“We have surpassed our expectations for the year,” Thomas said, adding the plan was to pick up 85,000 visitors in 2013. “I think what it says for Silver Dollar City and for the city of Branson is that the folks who visit Branson love to find things that are new within this market, and that when there is something new and exciting, folks will visit us from Springfield, from Little Rock, St. Louis, Tulsa, northwest Arkansas and all of our feeder markets.
“For folks who are looking for a vacation or weekend getaway, Branson is still very much on their radar.”
The last two years, SDC has hovered around 1.9 million visitors. Patriotic gatherings at the park after 9/11 produced its record annual attendance of 2.1 million.
Thomas said the uniqueness of the new roller coaster – it is the only wooden coaster to twist upside down three times, and it has the second longest drop of any wooden coaster, according to industry databases UltimateRollerCoaster.com and RCDB.com – made it something people had to try. The company’s demographics, he said, showed increases in visitors from Springfield and the greater region.
“If you wanted to ride anything like Outlaw Run, you had to come to Branson, Missouri,” Thomas said. “We’ve had coaster clubs from Europe. We’ve had visitors from both coasts (and) folks from Chicago and Dallas who have come to Branson specifically to ride Outlaw Run.”
Silver Dollar City Attractions Director of Publicity Lisa Rau said results were mixed with two of the company’s other Branson entertainment venues.
Tickets for Showboat Branson Belle grew by 9 percent this year to 145,000 passengers, but she said wet summer weather was responsible for a 10 percent drop in visitors at White Water to 187,000 from 208,000 in 2012.
“The weather is king and queen, frankly,” she said of the drop at White Water.
SDC Attractions held a demolition party for the Bermuda Triangle ride on Sept. 25, and Rau said a project announcement at the water park would be coming soon.
Branson reached its high-water mark of 8 million visitors in 2007, Summers said, but since the recession took hold it has boasted a few hundred thousand less each year – averaging between 7 million and 7.5 million annually.
The number of families on the sequin scene is down to 42.7 percent this year from 48.5 percent in 2011, according to CVB numbers, while the average adult age has risen to 56 from 54.4 during that time. Overall city sales tax revenue is up 2.4 percent, in line with the estimated increase in visitors.
“Hardly any destination had an increase between ’08 and the last couple of years,” he said.
Tourism trends in Branson have mimicked the rest of the country, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. On Sept. 20, the BEA projected tourism spending would increase by 2.5 percent in 2013. After spending decreases around 15 percent in late 2008 and 2009, the industry stabilized in late ‘09 and has modestly grown up to 5 percent every quarter since.
In Springfield, visitors this year have pushed hotel room demand by more than 4 percent through July, according to Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau President and CEO Tracy Kimberlin. In early September, Kimberlin was among local leaders visiting Nashville, Tenn., to pick up tips on how the Music City has attracted economic development.
In 2008, on the front end of the recession, Nashville officials approved a $650 million convention center dubbed the Music City Center that Kimberlin said is now bearing fruit.
He said 14 hotels are under construction or planned for the downtown area.
“Now, they are positioned to take advantage of what they did,” said Kimberlin, a longtime proponent for a convention center hotel in downtown Springfield.
He attributed room demand growth to a busy group month in June and an improving economy.
“The impact of the recession is waning,” Kimberlin said, adding hotels are reporting upticks in business travel that rival pre-2008 levels.
With Silver Dollar City’s investment in Outlaw Run and Southwest Airlines’ discount-flying business model to the city, Summers said Branson is poised for future growth.
He said an increase of 7.1 percent in hotel/motel revenue through June in the city is among the factors that point to a brighter future.
“The number of families is relatively stable. The number of shows that have been seen by any individual has actually gone up,” Summers said. “I think our best days are ahead of us.”
