CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Some of the city’s hottest attractions thrive in the summer when tourists visit and locals have some free time on their hands, however this is not your typical summer. The heat wave is affecting all types of local attractions: indoors, outdoors and some that are both.
For some, like the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History, the extreme heat is a good thing. With an air conditioned environment, attractions like museums are reaping the benefits.
"When you visit a museum on a hot summer day, it’s a nice place. It’ll be comfortable and cool. We have found that our visitation is incrementally increasing as we move through the summer months," CC Museum of Science and History President Karen Stevenson said.
Other local attractions, like the South Texas Botanical Gardens, rely on warm weather to thrive, but this year's summer heat is melting their attendance.
"When temperatures get above normal, sometimes our visitors don’t always show up and so we have seen a decrease of about ten percent of our visitor count than last year," Executive Director Dr. Michael Womack said.
Womack said this decrease in visitors equals about a couple thousand dollars lost a month, and with back to school around the corner, they aren’t expecting much turnaround.
"Once back to school starts we do see a significant decrease in our weekday visitors," Womack said.
However other attractions, like the U.S.S Lexington, have both indoor and outdoor areas, saying although numbers are still good, it's just not the same.
"Summer is our busiest time. July is our busiest month and it was no different this year. We had some really good numbers, however, it was lower than last year and lower than the year before," Lexington Executive Director Steve Banta said.
The summer and the summer heat will eventually end, but all local attractions will continue to welcome guests despite the weather, because there are great stories to tell everywhere.
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