As KY tourist attractions return to normal visitation, few COVID-19 precautions remain

While several popular Kentucky tourist attractions report a deep desire from guests to get out and explore this year, and many expect a return to full visitation, few COVID-19 safety restrictions remain in place.

Mike Mangeot, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Tourism, said the state saw a 26% decrease in the industry’s overall economic impact following the March 2020 pandemic shutdown.

“We never really shut down,” Mangeot said. “What it did for us, more than anything else, was it drove people to look for some of those ... hidden gems.”

However, in 2021, visitation was almost back to normal. Mangeot says while the industry hasn’t reached 100% normalcy yet, Kentucky Tourism is expecting a really successful 2023.

Almost three years after initial closure in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, many attractions are reporting higher visitation and conditions that are reverting to “normal.”

While people may notice less restrictions, contracting the virus is still a threat. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported 3,743 new cases in Kentucky over the past week, as of Jan. 25. The state has a 10 to 14.9% positive test rate, though both that metric and the new reported cases do not account for at-home positives or those not reported to health officials.

Places that offer outdoor activities have had some advantage during the pandemic, as those settings, with proper spacing, pose a lower risk of spreading or contracting the virus, the Mayo Clinic reports.

Here are some popular attractions in Kentucky and how they’re adjusting after removing some COVID-19 restrictions. The Herald-Leader attempted to sample a variety of attractions across the state, but precautions vary.

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Mammoth Cave

The number of visitors to Mammoth Cave was cut drastically during the pandemic, from around 660,000 in 2019 to around 375,000 in 2020. But this year, the national park is estimated to get 807,000 visitors.

In the height of the pandemic, National Park Service officials suspended the guided cave tours and instead created a self-guided, physically distanced tour. Even though the number of tickets the agency could sell was slashed in half, the park never had a problem attracting visitors.

“Throughout 2020 and 2021, people were wanting to get out,” said Molly Schroer, Mammoth Cave’s public information officer. “A lot of people were coming into the park to just get out of their homes, get away [and] see something different ... We’re glad we could be a site for people to come and get a little break from what was going on.”

The park now has no COVID-19 policies in place for visitors to the park.

Kentucky Horse Park

The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington had an advantage when the pandemic first began, its executive director said. While it still had to close down for a short while, once it reopened, most of their attractions were already COVID-friendly in nature.

“A lot of our activities are already outside, so you look at COVID, talk about social distancing and staying away from people, and the fact that we weren’t largely in a confined area .... I think we had an advantage. We were able to automatically have a level of social distancing there,” Executive Director Lee Carter said.

Now, the park is operating as it did prior to the pandemic.

“We’re a little bit more aware, of course, of sanitary things and making certain safety precautions available but for the most part there haven’t been any changes we’ve had to make,” Carter said.

The park has multiple attractions, including a museum and a place where guests can meet the horses. Guests can ride them, too.

“What we do in the park, we really try to make that connection, we believe there is a connection between head, heart and horse,” Lee said. “And so we try to build that, where folks can deepen their relationships.”

Louisville Zoo

The Louisville Zoo’s attendance has grown by almost 100,000 since 2019 and more than 350,000 compared to the height of pandemic restrictions.

Now, the zoo is back to pretty much normal operations, and Director Dan Maloney said he sees a renewed sense of wanting to get out in nature.

“As we go into this next phase, as we’re managing to live with the virus ... I think people are going to continue to want to enjoy outdoor areas,” Maloney said. “I think more people are working from home, so if they can get out for a short period of time ... it’s an opportunity for them.”

The Louisville Zoo initially closed down March 17, 2020, and reopened with restrictions June 12, 2020, which included mask wearing and physical distancing. Maloney said it’s good for the animals to have visitors frequently.

“The animals enjoy watching us as much as we enjoy watching them, observing them,” he said. “And in the absence of guests, you know, the animals were certainly paying attention ... that’s as much of the enrichment in their lives as the people coming to enjoy the animals.”

This National Park Service site on the KY border drew nearly 840K visitors in 2021

Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory

In 2020, the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory saw 77,000 guests, compared to its previous record year, 2019, when 318,000 visited the destination. Now the museum is back up and running with the visitor total at about 300,000 last year.

“Twenty twenty-two, it seems like that excitement to get back out was definitely full fledged, I mean people were excited coming into the museum,” said Andrew Soliday, the museum’s marketing director. “Leisure travel was really the first thing to come back online for us in full swing.”

The museum takes guests through the process of building a Slugger baseball bat, among other attractions. Guests leave with a bat of their own.

The facility initially closed in March 2020 and reopened in June of that year with restrictions. The first part of the museum to open was the store, with a mask requirement and arrows on the ground directing traffic and encouraging physical distancing.

Now, the museum is back to normal operations, Soliday said.

This story was reported in response to reader questions and comments from our Know Your Kentucky project. If you have a question about Kentucky, we’d like to hear from you. Fill out the form below or email ask@herald-leader.com.