Tennessee attractions listing lacks one king-sized draw

An annual state survey ranking Tennessee’s tourist attractions by attendance is notable this year for what’s missing from the list ? the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s castle, Graceland.

Elvis Presley’s Memphis home had been on previous lists, but the company that operates the late singer’s home as a tourist attraction decided this year not to participate in the survey, the results of which were released in October.

“From what our sales department told me, there was no real formula for the survey,” said Kevin Kern, spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Each person who visits the home is counted in attendance, Kern said, while other operators may base their reporting on sales of multiple tickets to the same individuals within one venue.

Graceland attendance was about 600,000 last year, but if the company counted everyone who visited its related shops and attractions nearby, attendance would be about 1.4 million people, Kern said.

State travel officials acknowledge the ranking is compiled strictly through voluntary reporting by operators of the attractions, but said it is intended to be a tool used by those in the tourism industry.

State Sen. David Fowler, R-Signal Mountain, chairman of the Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee, said the list may help the attractions because they can use the ranking in their advertising.

Otherwise, it seems to have little value, he said.

“If the larger attractions aren’t reporting, then the statistics are pretty meaningless,” Fowler said.

In Florida, the nation’s No. 2 tourist destination behind California, the state tourism department doesn’t survey attractions by attendance, because operators don’t like to share the numbers, said Vanessa Welton, spokeswoman for Visit Florida.

“The attractions keep their own individual records,” and keep them secret, Welton said. “It’s proprietary. It’s part of healthy competition.”

Graceland continues to participate in a tourism industry survey, but it is one for which the results are reported only within the industry and are not made public, Kern said.

Tennessee tourism officials don’t claim the attendance list is an accurate count of the number of tourists visiting the state each year. The list encompasses just 21.5 million of the state’s nearly 44 million visitors in 2004, according to agency reports.

Phyllis Qualls-Brooks, assistant commissioner of the Department of Tourist Development, said the attractions attendance list is compiled primarily for use in the tourism industry.

“It serves as a guide to what’s happening in the state,” she said. “It is used by convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce and developers of attractions.”

A developer is building a new resort in Pigeon Forge based on the strong attendance at attractions there, Qualls-Brooks said.

Other well-known attractions, such as Beale Street in Memphis and the honky-tonks of Broadway in Nashville, are not on the list, because they are not a single attraction, but a collection of separate businesses that make up a tourism district, Qualls-Brooks said.

Tourism is a nearly $11 billion industry in Tennessee and employs more than 177,000 workers, according to the Department of Tourist Development.

Fowler said a list missing top attractions may be confusing to the public, but he doesn’t think it hurts Tennessee’s tourism industry.

“There are very few people who would visit Memphis and not have heard of Elvis and Graceland,” he said. “And in Chattanooga with the Tennessee Aquarium, especially with it being right downtown, most people would be curious as to what those buildings with the glass spires and the people milling around are.”

Tennessee’s top 10 tourist attractions
Dollywood in Pigeon Forge was the state’s top tourist attraction last year, with 2.4 million visitors. Elvis Presley Enterprises declined to take part in the study this year, so attendance at Graceland in Memphis is not included.

Based on state figures for 2004, here are the rest of Tennessee’s top 10 attractions with numbers of visitors:

2. Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, 1.6 million.

3. Bristol Motor Speedway, 1.1 million.

4. Ober Gatlinburg, 865,623.

5. Tennessee Aquarium, 856,000.

6. Golf & Games Family Park, (Memphis), 825,000.

7. Memphis Zoo, 810,291.

8. Casey Jones Village, (Jackson) 770,000.

9. Grand Ole Opry House & Opry Museum, 662,495.

10. Chattanooga Choo Choo, 592,360.

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On the Net:

State tourism department: http://www.state.tn.us/tourdev/