From the National Aquarium to the Baltimore Maritime Museum to the Maryland Science Center, many of the attractions that ring Baltimore's Inner Harbor are seeing the number of visitors slip from levels posted in previous years.
The downturn comes at a time when costly expansions are under way at two major attractions and when the $33 million Reginald F. Lewis Maryland Museum of African American History and Culture has broken ground at the corner of Pratt and President streets.
Local museum and tourism officials blame the lingering effects of the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks on the travel industry and the faltering economy in combination with several local factors, including slow convention business, hot summer weather and the October sniper shootings. For some Baltimore attractions, this marks the second straight year of flat or declining numbers.
"You could look out at the crowds this summer and see the difference," said Laura Givens, director of promotions and special events at the USS Constellation Museum in the Inner Harbor. "The crowds just weren't here.
"Summer all over the Inner Harbor was down. With the economy the way it was, our summer was bleak, as it was all over the Inner Harbor."
The problem isn't limited to Baltimore, experts said.
"Travel and tourism is down significantly," said Edward H. Able, president and chief executive of the Washington-based American Association of Museums. "I would say most every major city is suffering from that. Attractions, including our museums, are directly tied to travel and tourism."
The economy is making people think hard about spending money on museum visits that can cost a family of four more than $50.
"It's all boiling down to the money people have and where they can get the most for their money," said Jane C. Ballentine of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. "This means that folks are really looking at their pocketbooks carefully, and maybe they're going on one special outing instead of several. That spreads everybody thin, when the economy is slow."
At the Constellation, this year will end with about 96,000 visitors - about the same as the year before, but below the more than 100,000 projected, Givens said. And it's down substantially from the 122,000 the historic ship drew in 2000, during Operation Sail. In 1980, the year Harborplace opened, 350,000 went aboard.
In response, the Constellation shifted to its pared-back winter hours in September rather than in December, said Christopher S. Rowsom, executive director.
"We've basically been able to hold the line," he said. "We've done very targeted marketing and brochure distribution that we hadn't done before. ... I don't know that I'm actually worried, but I'm certainly hopeful that the city of Baltimore and state of Maryland can do more to attract people to the Inner Harbor area."
Rowsom projects visitation to be flat again next year. Also, he worries about the decline he has started to see in gifts to the museum.
"The combination of lower visitation and lower corporate, individual and foundation giving spells trouble for any museum," he said.
The National Aquarium, the harbor's most popular attraction, reported that paid admissions are down about 3 percent compared with 2001, when it drew 1.65 million visitors. The aquarium expects to close 2002 about 50,000 visitors shy of last year's final figure, officials said.
'Soft' times
"This was absolutely one of the most challenging years," said Lyn Frankel, senior director of marketing at the aquarium, where an adult admission costs $17.50. "We had a record high winter, then had a soft summer."
"July was the softest month, when we had high terror alerts close to weekends," Frankel said. "And there were uncertain market conditions. The American public hates uncertainty."
But aquarium officials are pushing ahead with a $112 million expansion and renovation project that will include a replica of a river canyon in the Australian Outback, and a Maryland Allegheny Cascades exhibit with a 35-foot-tall waterfall. The core expansion, expected to cost $62 million, is scheduled to be completed in 2005.
"The aquarium is committed to this expansion," Frankel said. "We have confidence that things will turn around by the time things are done. To remain cutting-edge, we have to keep moving ahead."
Harsh reality
For the near term, next year doesn't look particularly promising, even with a new program called Shark Quest launching in March, she said.
"We think we have a challenging year ahead," she said. "We're expecting to be 2 percent down. It's reality in these market conditions. To predict growth during these economic conditions would not be fiscally responsible."
At the Maryland Science Center, officials recently reported that attendance some weekends last summer was down by as much as 30 percent - part of the reason eight staff members were laid off last month.
"Science center attendance is always related to programming and other outside forces," said Christopher Cropper, senior director of marketing. "It's always fluctuated."
Pricing system
This year the science center adopted a pricing system widely used by similar institutions, offering visitors the option of buying admission to either the museum or its IMAX movie theater, or both.
"It really is about flexibility," he said. "We would hope that more options would encourage more visitors. We really wanted to be able to fit into peoples' schedules."
The museum, Cropper said, has no reservations about its continuing $40 million expansion and renovation.
"This period of renewal has been under way for some time," he said. "We do feel that the economy will improve, and when it does, the science center will be ready to take advantage of that."
Fighting the decline
Having two strong Inner Harbor anchors soon launch new space could stem the decline museum officials saw in the summer, Ballentine said.
"For those folks who have declining attendance, as soon as they open a new exhibit or an expansion, attendance goes back up," she said. "When they have something new, people just flock to them. If the new expansion or the new exhibit is what it's marketed to be, people will continue to come."
Larger crowds also could benefit the less-known Baltimore Maritime Museum. The attraction, which includes the Coast Guard Cutter Taney, the USS Torsk, the Light Ship Chesapeake and the Knoll Lighthouse, has seen a decline in attendance to 115,000 from 125,000 in 2001.
Changed behavior
"If you look at us through June, we were up 10 percent," said Andrew Murray, director of the National Historic Seaport of Baltimore, the museum's operator. "It's the second half of the year that's hurt. I think people really started to change their behavior the second half of the year. June was fine, and then the heat kicked in, in July and August, and people don't want to be walking on the promenade visiting our attractions."
Port Discovery, Baltimore's struggling children's museum, reported flat attendance by mid-December. Given its anticipated holiday crowds, officials at the Market Place museum said they expect to end the year slightly up from last year's 268,000 paid visitors.
Officials at the Museum of Industry on Key Highway report that they have seen a stable year, if not a slight increase. Final numbers for the year are not calculated until January, said Claire R. Mullins, a spokeswoman for the museum.
But, the museum, which gets 90 percent or more of its visitors from school and other groups, has experienced about a 10 percent decrease in walk-in attendance, she said.
Also, Fort McHenry, Baltimore's most historic landmark, reported about 5,000 fewer paid visitors this year than last.
Thinned out
The downturn in Inner Harbor visitors was especially evident at the July 4 fireworks display. Baltimore Police Department estimates put attendance at 150,000, comparable with the year before when it rained all evening, and half of the more than 300,000 people who attended in 2000.
Thinner crowds in and around the Inner Harbor have not only hurt the attractions. Businesses that rely on the crowds for their livelihood also have felt the pinch. Not all have survived.
After more than 23 years in Harborplace, Wayne Brokke, who operated Wayne's Bar-B-Que, shut his doors at the end of September.
"I knew by the end of May that I probably wasn't going to be able to make it through the winter," he said. "I prayed that June, July and August would dig me out, but they didn't."
Brokke said his business was down more than 40 percent in 2001 and another 30 percent this year - a drop he blames largely on the falloff in Baltimore's convention business.
In 2001, his sales were off $100,000 in one month alone as the convention business slowed. There were 55 conventions and trade shows in fiscal 2001, down from a peak of 73 in fiscal 1998.
When big conventions were in town, Brokke said, he could do $2.5 million a year in sales.
"If there was a large convention in town, Wayne's Bar-B-Que could do $10,000 to $15,000 a day Monday through Thursday," Brokke said. "Without them, we did $2,000 or $3,000."
Ed Kane, who has operated the Water Taxi for more than 25 years, said his business is down between 6 percent and 8 percent this year.
"I think this is the worst hit we've had," he said. "In my business, being down 6 to 8 percent gives me a losing year."
His best year was 2000, when he provided 430,000 rides, he said. That dipped to 408,000 in 2001, and he expects to close this year with 390,000 rides, he said.
"When you are in business to serve crowds, and the crowds aren't there, you're no place," he said. "My night trade is off sharply. My night trade is the visitors."
The competing Seaport Taxi, operated by the National Historic Seaport, reports an increase. The Seaport Taxi expects to close 2002 with 275,000 riders, said Murray, of the National Historic Seaport of Baltimore. There were 125,000 riders in 2000 when the National Historic Seaport bought the business and 250,000 the following year, he said.
'Smaller pie'
Also, several new attractions such as the Hi-Flyer hot-air tethered balloon at Port Discovery and the Discovery Channel Ducks amphibious tours are competing for tourist dollars, said Dan Lincoln, senior vice president of sales and marketing with the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association.
"The number of travelers has contracted," he said. "So there's more competition going after a smaller pie."
Local attractions are bracing for another lean year, Lincoln said.
"We know the next 12 to 18 months are going to continue to be challenging and difficult," he said.