Officials, in a news release issued today, said 66,044 people have visited the comedy center to date. That includes visitors from all 50 states and 18 countries — with 88.7% of of attendance coming from outside Chautauqua County.

With the opening of the downtown facility, the Lucy Desi Museum also saw its highest attendance in its 23-year history, with 47,432 people visiting from August 2018 to present.

Officials said growth “continues at a rapid pace,” with August, September and October of 2019 experiencing a 19.75% increase in visitors over the same three months in 2018.

“This data is released as reports from Chautauqua County and the city of Jamestown show that county lodging revenue and city sales tax revenue just reached all-time record highs in 2019,” the NCC said in its release.

P-J file photo

To date, the center reported receiving 226 tour groups with an average of 33.3 people per group, including motor coach operators from around the country.

Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center, said launch numbers put the center “right on track with projections, given that it takes attractions in markets like ours at least three years to stabilize.” She noted that the original projection for stabilized attendance was about 114,000.

“That is still our goal and consistent with current projections,” Gunderson told The Post-Journal.

AECOM, a leisure economics project consulting firm, is projecting it will take a minimum of three years for an attraction such as the NCC to achieve stabilized projected attendance.

“The results for the National Comedy Center’s launch period are quite impressive,” said Linda Cheu, AECOM vice president. “In our nearly 65 years of experience with thousands of attractions, we’ve found that in markets which do not have a large resident market like that of a large metro area, but rather, rely primarily on tourists — it typically takes a few years of operations before an attraction reaches stabilized attendance.”

According to statistics released by NCC, 59% of non-resident visitors stayed in the area for two or more days, with 77.58% of visitors eating in local restaurants (an average of 2.6 meals). Furthermore, 37.9% of visitors stayed in a hotel, AirBnB or other lodging, staying for an average of 2.18 nights. And 35.24% visited other attractions beyond the National Comedy Center and Lucy Desi Museum.

On average, each visiting group spent $364.54 on food, lodging, entertainment and attractions while in the area. Of those visitors, 85.55% indicated that they were likely to visit the comedy center again in the future.

The data is based on email surveys of visitors, including 468 responses recorded from 5,000 surveys emailed out. The response rate was statistically significant, Gunderson said.

“It’s clear that visitors not only love the experience but are staying in our hotels, eating in our restaurants, shopping in our retail stores and visiting other attractions. It’s changing the game,” she said. “We look forward to ramping up marketing efforts to bring even more visitors from throughout the country and around the world to learn and experience the story of comedy.”

“The National Comedy Center has provided Chautauqua County with a completely unique and highly visible new attraction which is bringing in visitors on a year-round basis,” said Andrew Nixon, president and CEO, Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau. “The Center is a key factor in the robust occupancy and tourism revenue numbers that Chautauqua County has experienced during 2019. The National Comedy Center serves as a driver of new visits to the region, as well as a positive new experience for those who have been here before. Being named to TIME Magazine’s ‘World’s Greatest Places’ list at the end of the summer season will likely propel the momentum from here.”

P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The 2019 summer season also marked the second time that NCC partnered with Chautauqua Institution for a week of comedy-themed programming. The comedy week was the institution’s biggest week of the season, within their most highly-attended summer season in a decade.

“Chautauqua Institution was pleased to once again partner with the National Comedy Center on a week that featured a range of highly popular comedy experiences,”said Michael Hill, Chautauqua Institution president. “Our weeklong investigation of ‘What’s Funny?’ contributed to an overall successful week at Chautauqua in one of our best seasons ever. It is clear that Chautauquans love comedy.”

Added project Chairman Tom Benson: “This is all working extremely well and driving a real and lasting impact on our local economy. We’re already seeing it pay out in sales tax revenue and hotel occupancy, and we are extremely optimistic about Year 2 and beyond.”

Regarding the spike in attendance to the Lucy Desi Museum, Gunderson said the comedy center’s opening, combined with marketing and PR campaigns to support it, certainly played a big role.

“Visitors to the comedy center are looking for other things to do while in town,” she said, “and the Lucy Desi Museum has been a beneficiary of that, just as other attractions, restaurants, hotels and retail shops have experienced an increase. It all started here with the Lucy Desi Museum so we’re very pleased that we’re introducing the museum — and the incredible careers of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz — to many more people. In fact, this attendance level was a 51% increase over a similar period prior to the opening of the comedy center.”