Titanic growth
Branson keeps growing as Titanic joins lineup
The Associated Press
3/15/06

BRANSON, Mo. - The bow of the Titanic rears above the spray of waves, the fatal iceberg jammed in its black and riveted iron flank.

The museum built to resemble the ship is part of Branson's efforts to continue growing by widening its appeal beyond the elderly tourists who first helped it boom in the early 1990s, drawn by wholesome country music and crooners.

Branson is adding more upscale shopping, family attractions and pop music fare aimed at newly retiring baby boomers and parents with children. The southwest Missouri town also is seeing a surge of commercial and residential development as it becomes more of a year-round resort.

"It's the right mix of new development, which is what we want," said Jerry Adams, Branson's city communications director.

"It means we are not an attraction-only destination. It's a mix of shopping, commercial and residential development, and it means more year-round employment," Adams said.

Visitors are expected to number 7.6 million this year, Branson tourism officials say. That would be a 4 percent increase, double the national growth in vacation travel that the Travel Industry Association of America forecasts this year.

The value of new construction was a record $173.5 million last year after $76 million the year before. The previous record was $119.5 million in 1993. The trend continued in January, when new construction worth $44.6 million broke a same-month record of $10.3 million in 1994.

A key development is set to open its first stage in May. Branson Landing, $430 million development on 95 acres on Lake Taneycomo, combines an indoor shopping mall, restaurants, two Hilton Hotels, a convention center, marina and boardwalk.

The mall will open May 26 with about 80 percent of an expected 100 stores and restaurants. Divided into theme areas, the mall will be anchored by Belk's department store and Bass Pro Shops, the Springfield-based hunting, fishing and outdoors retailer.

A resort destination needs a certain percentage of first-timers to keep growing. That rate in Branson has been running in the low 20s since a peak of 35 percent in 1995, and the chamber wants to get it back to an industry benchmark level of 25-30 percent, said Dan Lennon, vice president for marketing at the Branson Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.

That's where new attractions such as the Titanic museum and a greater variety of music shows come in.

Branson is not about to turn its back on its country music roots. But to appeal to aging baby boomers and more families with children, there are more pop music attractions this year, including Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater Complex, opening in April and presenting 1950s and 1960s rock.

Theme parks are also expanding. Silver Dollar City, a mixture of crafts and rides with a late 1800s atmosphere, is spending $8 million to add 10 rides in a new area called the Grand Exposition that echoes the era of world's fairs and expositions.

And there is the Titanic, officially named "The World's Largest Titanic Museum Attraction," which opened this month.

John Joslyn, who owns the museum, is a former television producer who dove to the wreck in a submersible in 1987 and produced the documentary "Return to the Titanic ... Live."

Joslyn has been a collector of Titanic artifacts and opened a smaller, similar attraction in Orlando, Fla., that he sold to build the Branson museum.

Joslyn said he has been coming to Branson for years and decided it made more sense for his attraction to be here, rather than Orlando.

"I love the Branson demographics," Joslyn said. He said both the families that tend to come in summer and the older visitors in the spring and fall have an interest in the Titanic story.

Branson is also a drive-to destination, which can work to its advantage, despite high gas prices, according to the Travel Industry Association of America.

"We've seen time and time again when gas prices spike, people still tend to travel. That can benefit an area that is within a drive of a number of large metropolitan regions," said association spokeswoman Cathy Keefe.