Defying skeptics and some heavy potential competition, builders of the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific have hit their attendance goal of 1.6 million visitors two months short of its first anniversary.
Visitors have endured long lines, waits of up to two hours and relatively hefty ticket prices to make the aquarium a success its first year.
But simply providing a tourist attraction and meeting the project's hefty bond payments was never its primary goal.
City leaders who sold $117 million in bonds to build the aquarium hoped for far more: a draw that would spark tourism and lead the renewal of downtown, hit hard by the pullouts of the Navy and the Walt Disney Co., retail business failures and a general malaise.
These days, downtown Long Beach is hopping, with a new Rainbow Harbor, a rejuvenated Shoreline Village so busy its restaurants on occasion have run out of food, and three new high-end restaurants on Pine Avenue, which many attribute to the boost provided by the aquarium.
Downtown hotels are so busy that two new ones are planned, and even they probably won't dent the need for more rooms, says Linda Howell DiMario of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. In February, the last month for which figures are available, hotel rooms citywide were 79% occupied, renting for an average of $97. Five years ago, rooms were only 48% occupied and took in an average of $59 a night.
Although she attributes a sharp rise in hotel occupancy to increased business and convention travel related to the economy, she said the aquarium is "a very positive influence." Before the crowds started showing up, some wondered whether the aquarium would be another misguided waterfront tourist fiasco, like the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose.
The Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' famous plane that was housed in a dome next to the Queen Mary, failed and is now long departed. The Queen Mary is operating in the black now, but went broke several times under various operators, including Disney.
Ever since the City Council approved the aquarium project in October 1994, then hurriedly broke ground in order to get the jump on potential competitors, the question hovering over the facility has been: Would it be another financially ruinous adventure in creating a tourist attraction?
Even though the aquarium hit its target attendance of 1.6 million in April, two months ahead of schedule, it will probably fall well short of the 2 million visitors some aquarium enthusiasts had hoped for, based on preliminary projections by some analysts. Executives hope to finish the year with 1.8 million visitors.
