Two Local Attractions Make Alabama’s Top 10 Tourist List

State tourism officials have just released the list of Alabama’s top 10 tourist attractions for 2015. Montgomery and Selma have both made the list.

The Montgomery Zoo was the 8th most popular attraction in the state, with 230,992 visitors. The National Voting Rights Museum in Selma was ninth with 228,670.

The Montgomery Zoo’s attendance was actually down slightly from the 236,100 people who visited in 2014. However, the National Voting Rights Museum was up from the 88,650 who visited in 2014, thanks to the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery “Bloody Sunday” march, which brought President Obama and thousands of people to the city last year.

Statewide, more than 658,000 people visited the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville last year, ranking it number one among state attractions that charge admission, followed by the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at second with 580,221 and the Birmingham Zoo at third with 576,974, state tourism officials say.

Seven of the state’s Top Ten attractions charging admission showed an increase in attendance over previous years, spokesman Brian Jones said.  Attendance figures were collected by the Alabama Tourism Department from local tourism organizations.

The USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile placed fourth with 414,934 visitors and the McWane Science Center in Birmingham was fifth with 367,995.

Point Mallard Park in Decatur was sixth with 291,016.  The Huntsville Botanical Garden ranked seventh with 246,900. After the Montgomery Zoo and the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, EarlyWorks Museums in Huntsville was tenth with 165,000.

The Alabama Tourism Department also released the Top Ten attendance figures for other categories.  Beaches of the Alabama Gulf Coast were the number one natural destination in the state, attracting 5.9 million visitors last year. The Birmingham Botanical Gardens attracted 350,000 visitors to make it the most attended free attraction. More than 1 million people celebrated Mobile’s Mardi Gras making it the most attended event.  Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa was the number one sports destination with 712,747 fans attending University of Alabama home football games.