BusinessReport.com

As skyrocketing fuel prices and inflation hammer pocketbooks, Maury Drummond is dusting off an old brochure entitled “Treasures In Our Own Backyard.”

Drummond, the director of the USS Kidd Veterans Memorial and Museum, is not alone when he says more budget-conscious Capital Region residents are staying closer to home this summer while not totally abandoning the idea of a vacation.

As a result, tourism officials are taking advantage of the opportunity to get more local visitors into such attractions as a floating museum, haunted plantation, night safari, water garden, eco-program and teahouse.

“We’ve had people living here 20 years who have never seen the downtown attractions,” Drummond says, “but the higher gas prices have made them consider what is available.”

Additionally, a rise in foreign visitors taking advantage of a weaker U.S. dollar has helped make up for lost out-of-state visitors.

The USS Kidd averages 85,000 visitors a year, and Drummond estimates 65% to 70% of them come from an eight- to nine-parish radius. About 1,500 of them are international visitors, a number that has slightly grown. “It’s a balance between losing one group and gaining some of the other,” he says.

While the World War II destroyer and museum are routinely promoted as part of downtown Baton Rouge attractions, Drummond says they’re thinking about circulating the old backyard treasures brochure again as part of a greater advertising effort to reach more area tourists.

That’s also why they’re trying to bring back the popular exhibit, the HMS Bounty of Mutiny on the Bounty fame, by mid-2009 and the replica of the Columbus ship, Nina.

Visitor numbers also are good at the neighboring Louisiana Art and Science Museum in a reconstructed train station on South River Road, where Operations Manager Lanni Harris reports a 54% increase in summer attendance over the same time last year thanks to exhibits such as Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.

As someone who’s also staying closer to Baton Rouge because of high gas prices, Harris says she isn’t surprised to see more people, especially from areas like Lafayette, Alexandria and New Orleans.

“We do have, on a regular basis, tourists from around Louisiana that we have not seen in the past years,” she says.

Also aimed at catching the local tourism wave, Marketing Director Jesse Hoggard says exhibits that appeal to a broad audience, combined with high gas prices, can add to attendance figures. And LASM is strategizing on how to make the most of the situation by maximizing its advertising dollar and incorporating more exhibits with local appeal.

A new image might also turn an eye, he says. Some changes are in the works for the museum and could be launched before the end of the month. “Changing that visual brand will help us really stand out,” Hoggard says.

At the Baton Rouge Zoo on Thomas Road, Marketing Director Mary Woods says they’re hoping the new Twilight Safari—a tram ride through the zoo in the cool of the evening on Wednesdays through July—will lure more local visitors.

“We are targeting our message,” Woods says. “Come visit the zoo—it’s in your own backyard.”

Although attendance is slightly down at the Audubon State Historic Site in St. Francisville, efforts are also under way to revitalize programs to counter a nationwide tourist decline in historic sites. The site includes the historic Oakley House, where John James Audubon lived as an art teacher in 1821 while working on Birds of America.

Of last year’s 30,000 visitors to the site, an estimated half came from Louisiana, Historic Site Manager John House says. The figure had only recently returned to the pre-Hurricane Katrina level when higher gas prices created a dropoff in visiting school groups.

In hopes of regaining visitors, House says they’re revamping their programs, offering “eco-programs” and night hikes and targeting Scouts. “We’re not just an old museum anymore,” he says. “We’re making sure we have relevance to all the people of Louisiana and with issues of today like conservation and natural resources, which tie in nicely to Audubon’s name.”

Executive Director Steven Fullen says it’s business as usual at Magnolia Mound Plantation, a 1791 French-Creole home that was once the centerpiece of a 950-acre cotton plantation. The Nicholson Drive home is surrounded by 16 acres of oak trees, some more than 200 years old.

Fullen says the plantation’s advertising has always focused on drawing traffic; almost 19,500 people visited last year. Fullen anticipates a slightly higher number this year, which includes some out-of-state visitors who might have an LSU connection.

The mix of visitors to Houmas House, a restored Greek Revival mansion on River Road south of Gonzales in Ascension Parish, also is shifting.

Owner Kevin Kelly says that 90,000 guests are expected to visit what was once the seat of a 20,000-acre sugar plantation and the setting for the Bette Davis movie Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte—its best attendance since 1986. While out-of-state visitors aren’t coming, Kelly says there has been an increase in local and European visitors.

“I just want to keep growing,” Kelly says. “My goal is to have 200,000 people a year. With the growth we’re having, we should be there in a couple of years.”

For the past three months, Kelly has advertised in a magazine that’s placed in hotel rooms in Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas to tap regional tourism. The numbers already show visitors are drawn to the gardens and two restaurants; in six weeks, there will be the added attraction of a new teahouse.

“We’re finding an increase in Asian tourists,” say Kelly, who expects this market to grow as China opens more to travel. “We’re definitely seeing a larger increase there, where they are nearly 10% to 15% of the market. They love the gardens and the plantation with its Gone With The Wind image.”