Bemusement - The Attractions Industry Blog

Saturday, February 19, 2011 Chicago's World Class Museums drawing the crowds    Chicago’s 14 top museums and zoos are key economic drivers for Illinois, generating in excess of $1 billion in economic impact in the state, creating over 26,000 jobs and encouraging hundreds of thousands of tourists to make the Windy City their destination of choice....View more

Friday, February 11, 2011 25 million people visit BIAZA zoos and aquariums every year    British zoos and aquariums are making a significant contribution to the UK’s economy, according to the recently published study - Economic Impact Assessment for the Zoo & Aquarium Sector- prepared for The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) by John Regan Associates. ...View more

Saturday, February 05, 2011 Museums: Smithsonian’s attendance tops record year and Tate outgrow galleries    Last year was a great year for The Smithsonian Museums here in the US and the Tate’s four galleries in the UK. The attendances generated by The Smithsonian's 19 Museums and zoo, and the Tate’s four galleries were both listed in “BlooloopFacts” on our news page in January. Here is a recap....View more

Thursday, November 25, 2010 Cold-Blooded Fun at Orlando's Gatorland Theme Park    With a day to spare before the IAAPA Expo last week, I took a visit to Gatorland, which although not on every tourist’s hit list for Orlando, certainly should be, being not only one of the city’s oldest attractions (opened in 1949) but also one of its best, with Tripadvisor ranking it 7th out of the city’s 196 attractions listed....View more

Monday, February 15, 2010 Are Farm Animal Attractions and Petting Zoos too dangerous for young children?    Following a serious outbreak of E.coli 0157 in the UK, during the latter part of 2009 which saw a number of children hospitalised and several farm attractions closed, Professor Hugh Pennington, Emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that parents should "think hard" before letting children, particularly those under the age of 5, touch animals at petting farms....View more