Kentucky rise in tourism spells good news for local attractions

BOWLING GREEN Ky.-The Bluegrass state of Kentucky. It’s known for caves, the Corvette, and as of late, visitors.

Officials say more than 71 million visitors traveled to Kentucky last year, which is a 4% increase from 2017.

Communications Director of the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Beth Noffsinger said it’s not uncommon to see visitors trickle in from far away.

“We actually had some visitors in this morning from Texas looking for information on their way out of town. Almost every day in our office, we’ll have folks popping in from around the country,” Noffsinger said.

This is a result of having so many local hotspots, like the National Corvette Museum.

“It’s been a great summer here at the National Corvette Museum. We’ve had a lot of car groups, a lot of visitors stopping in and passing through Kentucky,” Katie Ellison said museum director of marketing and communications.

The museum of America’s sport car has been driving in people from places like New Hampshire.

“I remember seeing a video clip a long time ago about the sinkhole that opened up here. I thought it’d be cool to see the cars that unfortunately had to end up there,” said Akaash Walker from New Hampshire.

Up in Horse Cave, Director of Animal Management at the Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo Mick McGill said there has been a big increase in visitors there as well.

“This year alone already, we’ve had more people than in the last 30 years. It’s not just a little bit of an increase. We’ve actually doubled in attendance this year,” McGill said.

As time goes on, McGill hopes more people hop on into Kentucky.

“There’s nothing that’s a better sight than a full parking lot. If we get so full to where people are parking across the street, then all the better,” McGill said.

According to the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, hundreds of thousands of visitors came to Bowling Green last year.