A replica of Noah's Ark – 510 feet long and more than five stories high – has drawn millions of people to rural Northern Kentucky for the past decade.
It's become like the Disneyland of religious tourism
in the region, minus the major rides.
The roughly $100-million attraction
, located about 40 miles south of Cincinnati, celebrated its 10-year anniversary this summer with guest speakers and a concert series.But it also hit two other milestones: the loss of its multimillion-dollar tourism tax breaks and the lowest ticket sales reported since it opened, excluding 2020.
Declining ticket sales
It was national news when the Ark opened in 2016.
Former President Jimmy Carter visited it while it was under construction and thousands of people from around the world flooded to the attraction on opening day.
At the time, Ken Ham, CEO and founder of Answers in Genesis, wrote online that the Ark Encounter would draw in roughly 1.4 million to 2.2 million people annually.
Two years later, in 2018, the Ark Encounter reported selling 842,038 tickets.
That was the second best year for the attraction, installed in Grant County near sister site Creation Museum in Boone County.
Ham wrote an opinion piece in The Enquirer at the time about attendance at the ark.
In it, he said reported ticket sales did not reflect all visitors to the Ark Encounter because not everyone needs a ticket to get in. Children under 5 years old, along with people with lifetime, annual and multiday passes are not required to buy tickets at the gate.
"The reality is that the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum have been an economic tourist boon in Northern Kentucky," Ham wrote.
The following year, sales were just under 900,000.
But since the COVID-19 pandemic, ticket sales have mostly been on the decline.
For instance, the ark reported 652,352 ticket sales in 2025. That's was 12% lower than in 2024 and 15.5% lower than in 2021.
This year, the attraction is on track to have its lowest ticket sales since it opened. It sold 309,580 tickets in the first six months, meaning annual ticket sales could be less than 620,000 if that trend continues.
That's in spite of additional attractions that have been added at the 800-acre site over the years, like a zoo, zipline, carousel and 4D virtual reality theater.
Ham and others declined to be interviewed for this article via their media relations person.
"I’m sorry, but I don’t think they are going to be able to make this work anytime in the near future," Melany Ethridge,director of media relations at &Associates, told The Enquirer in an email, citing the Ark's busy schedule.
A nearly $2 million annual cut looming
A lot of tourism businesses and attractions get tax breaks in Kentucky through the Kentucky Tourism Development Act. The idea behind the program is to incentivize tourism development that creates jobs and drives economic growth.
Projects that received money via sales tax refunds in the 2024-2025 fiscal year included the Maker's Mark Distillery visitor experience, Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park at Mammoth Cave and Newport on the Levee.
Over the past decade, the Ark Encounter was eligible for $18.25 million worth of tourism tax breaks – roughly $1.8 million per year for 10 years, according to public records.
It had received about $14.4 million of that since 2016, according to the most recent Kentucky Tourism Development Incentive Annual Report.
As of mid-August, it’s no longer eligible for the tax relief program, which ended after 10 years. But the Ark can likely expect two more payments from the state, which will bring it closer to the full amount it expected.
Those payments will include sales tax rebates for 2025 through Aug. 13, 2026.
What does the ticket sale drop mean?
It's normal for theme parks to see a drop in ticket sales in the years after they open. That's according to Sandy Chen, professor of hospitality and tourism at Ohio University.
"Many attractions experience a surge of interest when they first open because of novelty, media attention and people wanting to see the newest destination," she told The Enquirer in an email. "After those initial years, attendance often settles into a more stable level."
But a sustained downward trend in attendance is different.
Chen reviewed Ark Encounter ticket sale data obtained by The Enquirer.
She said ticket sales showed strong growth pre-pandemic and "rebounded substantially" after 2020.
The decline in 2025, however, may indicate a "more recent weakening trend," Chen said.
Chen said Ham's explanation about attendance numbers – free admission for children, season passes, etc. – could account for at least some of the ticket sales decline.
But, she added, "Without detailed attendance and membership data, it's difficult to determine exactly how much each factor contributes."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKY's Ark Encounter ticket sales in decline at 10-year anniversary
