In spite of the icy cold in many regions of the world, successful off-season attractions can turn the winter blues into a sweet symphony for many parks and zoos around the country.

The Cincinnati area has an average annual snowfall of 23.4 inches and frosty cold winters. Although that kind of weather doesn’t typically inspire sightseeing, the Cincinnati Zoo gives people a reason to bear the bluster.

Before the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden started its PNC Festival of Lights 20 years ago, it had just 10,000 to 11,000 people pass through its gates during December. Now, with 2.5 million lights, three 30-foot-tall nutcrackers, and a holiday-themed laser light show as some of its wintertime entertainment, that number soars to between 200,000 and 225,000 guests.

“You take a month where you were significantly upside down as far as operating costs were concerned and actually turn it into one of your more profitable months of the year,” says Gregg Hudson, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. “That’s a huge thing.”

As parks and zoos try to stay competitive, attract more guests, and give their attraction added value for season pass holders, operation schedules have stretched well beyond the traditional summer months and are focusing on the holiday seasons throughout the year when people like to celebrate.

“The seasons of yesteryear run from Memorial Day to Labor Day,” says Lisa Rau, director of publicity and public relations for Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo. “[Now] we go from late March until late December.”

Rau says Silver Dollar City doesn’t even consider the latter part of the year its downtime. “This is not our off-season,” she says. “It’s a key integral part of our regular season.”

Featuring daily holiday parades, a living nativity, and a talking Christmas tree, Silver Dollar City has hosted An Old Time Christmas for more than a decade—expanding it each year.

“Our guests responded to our festivals coming several times during the traditional season,” says Rau, explaining An Old Time Christmas’s origins. “Christmas was a natural extension, and it has been a smashing success.”

The Claus Cause
Legoland California also has seen all its pieces fit nicely into place for its Holiday Block Party celebration, says Courtney Simmons, manager of media relations and government affairs.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Legoland saw a sharp decline in tourism. But during the week between Christmas and New Year’s 2001, it had record-breaking attendance, she says.

With the help of Santa Claus, lots of holiday food, and nightly fireworks, Simmons adds, the park provides extra value for its season pass holders throughout December.

Legoland becomes a hot spot for people to do their Christmas shopping as well, she says. With 8,000 square feet dedicated to toy sales, this Carlsbad, Calif., location’s retail facility—the Big Shop—is the largest in the country, selling the most popular Lego toys and merchandise.

The New Christmas
While the eight reindeer seem to have their hooves firmly planted in many parks’ schedules, a new holiday has emerged as another time of the year to capture added revenue and attendance—Halloween.

“You’re seeing that because you have a large investment in the property, the longer that you can operate it, the more beneficial it can be to the business,” says Peter Owens, public relations manager for Dollywood—Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

Many amusement and theme parks in his area that have been traditionally summertime destinations are now trying to scare in the crowds with some tricks and treats.Simmons agrees. “I believe it’s emerging much more as a novelty than December ever was,” she says.

Legoland’s Brick-or-Trick caters to children ages two to 12 years old, with events like costume contests and pumpkin carving.

The Halloween season also has made its way into the animal kingdom. This past year marked the first time that the Cincinnati Zoo opened and marketed its Halloween event to the public. The results seemed extremely promising, Hudson says.

Over a four-night period, almost 40,000 people came for the treat-or-treat stations, costumed ghouls, and spooky Halloween shows.

Hudson says zoo staff planned to wait until next year to put on the Halloween event, but they went ahead with it early because the hot weather caused a sluggish summer and they were able to use the holiday to help them recover.

“It was pretty short notice, but we were able to pull off a good event and establish some momentum and hopefully make it bigger and better for next year. We’re actually going to increase the operating nights from four to six,” he says. “October is another one of those months where we were breakeven at best and now we’re able to get some net operating cash.”

A Bounty of Benefits
Staying open during the “shoulder seasons” may give some parks an edge over their competition, as well as a host of other financial and brand-building benefits.

Featuring 3.5 million lights, a Christmas parade, and a plethora of holiday-related shows, Owens says Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Christmas exposes the property to other audiences and it grows the base of guests it’s able to hold.

“Dollywood and the whole Smoky Mountain region have looked to try to make the Smokies a year-round destination,” he says. “We’re able to expand our product to folks who may not have Dollywood in their selection set otherwise.”

Also, the longer season allows the Dollywood staff to work more hours during the fall and winter months. Many of their employees live in the region, so they can put the money they earn back in the local economy.

“It’s an economic boom to the area and people who live here,” Owens says. “That’s a major positive.” But beyond just extending its season, Dollywood is actually known throughout the area as a holiday destination, independent of the activities it holds throughout the rest of the year, which ultimately gives the park means of reliable income during winter months.

The Cincinnati Zoo’s staff enjoys the extra paychecks, Hudson agrees, and the late-season revenue allows the zoo to work toward philanthropic and animal rescue projects as well.

It can make some operating money to put toward programs that don’t generate much cash. “This is one of our blatant attempts to be commercial, and we go out and make some money,” Hudson says. “But it funnels back into conservation and education programs.”

A Minimal Downside
Even though all seems as rosy as Santa Claus’s cheeks for parks and zoos that stay open during the off-season, several other factors could come into play that might put a chill into these extra plans.

Not surprisingly, success may ride on the elements. “We’re always watching the weather,” says Silver Dollar City’s Rau. They’ll run the rides if the conditions allow, but fortunately, she says, the mild winters of Branson usually cooperate.

Hudson also pays close attention to the five-day forecast. “We generally have between 1.2 and 1.3 million that come through annually. When you think you have 200,000 people coming the last month of the fiscal year, that can make you pretty nervous,” he says. “Cold doesn’t hurt us as much as rain. You’re just hoping for a dry winter.”

Having the kids in school can hurt business as well, but many parks have shifted their hours to accommodate students’ schedules. Dollywood operates until 9 p.m. during the week, and Silver Dollar City keeps the lights on until 10 p.m.

And since most people file in during the evening hours, Hudson says that can create a whole new problem. Capacity issues can occur because everybody wants to visit the zoo between 6 and 8 p.m., instead of the normal eight to 10 hours during the regular season.

And many parks that use the off-season to build new rides and make park improvements may have a smaller construction window if they stay open longer, Owens says. A large capital project would most likely have to be held off until the park closes down. Putting on off-season entertainment isn’t cheap either, Hudson adds. Management has to worry about many costs from labor to the shows to the lights.

“These kinds of events take a tremendous amount of seed money to get them going,” he says. “It takes a lot of momentum and several years to get it up where it’s profitable. In economic times where they are now, a lot of zoos can’t wait around two or three years for an event to mature to the point where it’s making money. “I’d say more zoos are backing out of it than jumping in.”

Not for Everyone
Will Koch, president of Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari, knows all too well the difficulties of operating a park during the winter.

The park opened in 1946, originally called Santa Claus Land. The crowds used to swarm there between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but over time as the malls started to do more with Santa, park business dropped.

Luckily, the summer season grew, and by the mid-’70s, the park conglomerates didn’t open past the end of October and Santa didn’t visit anymore.

In the late ’80s, however, when some of the larger parks started to hold Christmas events, they decided to give it another go.

“It had a good response from the people who came,” Koch says. “There just weren’t enough of them. . . It wasn’t that we were breakeven. We were well south of the border.”They stopped the Christmas event after several years, Koch says.

He points to several reasons why the holiday events didn’t work for them and why they really don’t have any plans to try it again. “From our point of view, it really took the focus off getting the main park ready for the next season,” he says. “Normally, we didn’t start full scale in our planning cycle until September or October. All of a sudden, we were busy with operations all the way up through December. We didn’t have enough time in the spring, and the maintenance staff couldn’t get started as soon.

“These are all doable things, but it did take a big focus away from the main product, which is the summer season park.” Also, they failed to bring in corporate parties and outings, which they figured would be a big part of their business, he says. And the public relations of the Christmas events was lacking, too.

“We didn’t get the story out,” Koch says. “We didn’t tell it through the nonpaid media.”The operating hours also should be skewed toward the evening, he adds. They tried to make it a daytime event, thus limiting the amount of lights they could use.“Thinking back, the Christmas lights are a very important part of it,” he admitted. “We really missed the boat on that.”

Despite the bad luck in the past, Koch remains confident that if they had to do it all over again, they could make the winter a success.

But right now, he just wants to focus on the summer season, maybe.“There’s always a chance,” he says, laughing.Having your park in a town named after a certain North Pole locale may also add some incentive.
“We’re in Santa Claus, Ind.So it may seem like a natural. And we have to answer a lot of questions of why we aren’t open during Christmastime,” he says. “But at this point, that’s what
we do.”