Chattanooga aquarium loses patrons to Atlanta competitor

<p>The Tennessee Aquarium in downtown Chattanooga is losing visitors to the new Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, officials said.</p><p>The Tennessee Aquarium pioneered a downtown revival and has attracted more than 1 million customers a year since 1992. The Georgia Aquarium, the world's largest, opened a year ago Thursday.</p><p>"As you would expect, the decline in the attendance was mostly from Atlanta and markets further south," Cindy Todd, marketing director at the Tennessee Aquarium, said in an e-mail. "However, we're already seeing improvements in these numbers as the newness is wearing off the Georgia Aquarium."</p><p>Jeff Swanagan, executive director of the Georgia Aquarium, acknowledged that the Atlanta facility has likely reduced traffic to the Tennessee Aquarium, but said he does not consider Chattanooga's aquarium to be competition.</p><p>"As much as the Georgia Aquarium is successful, it's on the backs of our peers and the wisdom they shared with us," he said.</p><p>Todd agreed that "from our standpoint we view the Georgia Aquarium as complementary to our mission."</p><p>But Todd added: "From a tourism perspective, anything and everything that competes for discretionary time and money is competition," she said.</p><p>Georgia Aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci said that attraction has had 3.6 million visitors in its first year. Todd declined to provide specific attendance numbers at the Tennessee Aquarium.</p><p>David Graves, general manager of the Mellow Mushroom restaurant near the Tennessee Aquarium, said that while he has noticed a decline in foot traffic outside, his sales are up slightly.</p><p>"I hope this was the worst of it," Graves said. "Obviously our focal point downtown was the aquarium."</p><p>Chris Eidson, general manager of the Chattanooga Burger Bar, said his restaurant now focuses more on local residents than tourists. But the slowdown at the aquarium is still noticeable, he said.</p><p>"If their numbers are down, our numbers are down," Eidson said.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc170)</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc218)</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc3b0)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/11/112422