Zoo and Animal Park Capture Elusive Tourist : Leisure: The two San Diego attractions have managed to do what others couldn’t: post attendance gains in a recession year. New exhibits get much of the credit.

New attractions are helping the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the San Diego Zoo buck the trend of flat attendance at California amusement parks and other area tourist attractions, with both posting large gains over last year.

While attendance at California amusement parks overall is expected to decline slightly for the second year in a row because of the recession, the park and the zoo have seen attendance rise 27.8% and 14.7%, respectively, through July 23, from the same period last year.

“This is, admittedly, surprising,” said Tom Hanscom, a spokesman for the animal park, “and, frankly, we were surprised last year, too” when the park saw a modest 5.9% increase in attendance.

Both the zoo, in Balboa Park, and the animal park, near Escondido, are run by the Zoological Society of San Diego.

Cool weather and the animal park’s newest feature, Dinos to Rhinos--an exhibit of 24 mechanized prehistoric creatures, ranging from life-size to one-third-scale--get the credit for the attendance increase, Hanscom said.

“It’s been a balmy summer so far, and the beach has not proven to be a competition factor for us in the last four weeks,” he said. “Historically, when we have extremely warm summers, there’s been a noted effect in attendance.”

However, the robotic dinosaurs, created by San Juan Capistrano-based Dinamation International Corp., have been the real draw to the park, despite a $2 increase in the price of general admission, Hanscom said.

“Obviously, there’s just a very basic draw for small children,” he said. “They come out and are in awe of the dinosaurs in and of themselves.”

The exhibit is the largest of its kind and marks the first time the mechanical dinosaurs, which stand as tall as 27 feet and range in color from bright red to cobalt blue, have been displayed outdoors, Hanscom said.

Because of the robots’ exposure to the sun, manufacturers mixed in sun block with the paint to protect their soft, rubbery skins, said Wendy Keiper, a spokeswoman for Dinamation.

Attendance at the Wild Animal Park has hovered between 1.2 million and 1.3 million a year since hitting a high of 1.5 million in 1982, and the figures so far this year have the park on a record-breaking pace of 1.7 million, Hanscom said.

The story repeats itself, but to a lesser degree, at the zoo, where attendance is up for the first time since 1987, when it peaked at 3,835,749 as crowds flocked to see the giant pandas that were visiting from the Republic of China, zoo representative Georgeanne Irvine said.

“Attendance has been incredible this year,” said Irvine, who attributes the larger crowds to the opening of the $11.4-million Gorilla Tropics exhibit this summer and to the activities surrounding the zoo’s 75th-birthday celebration.

At the current rate, attendance will hit 3.5 million, up from a flat 3 million last year, Irvine said.

The success of the zoo and the animal park is even more spectacular given the dismal year that other San Diego tourist attractions are having.

Attendance at the Cabrillo National Monument, Old Town, Mission Bay Center and area museums are all down, according to the most recent figures compiled by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The total number of visitors to San Diego is flat compared to last year, edging up a mere 0.2% through May, ConVis officials said.

The few bright spots in San Diego’s tourism picture so far include a modest increase in total visitor spending (4.5%), as well as in a variety of areas, from air passenger travel to hotel occupancy, during the month of May.

“We had a little glimmer of light in May, and we can only hope that this bright spot will continue through July and August,” said Joanne DiBoa, who edits tourism publications for ConVis.

The faint ray of hope did not come in time for some.

Continental Crafts, a nonprofit consignment store in Old Town that is run by Catholic Charities, has decided to close shop after six months of dismal sales and will move back to its office in Mission Gorge.

“We’re moving simply because there are very few tourists that are coming around to buy things because of the recession,” said Terry Clark, who manages the 5-year-old folk art shop in Old Town, where visitation was down 23.4% in April and 15.9% in May over previous years.

Sea World, which does not release specific attendance figures, has shown little increase despite a $5-million investment in its new Water Ski Lagoon, officials said.

“We’re flat this year, but pleased with that, given the economy,” said Dan LeBlanc, a Sea World spokesman. “We know people aren’t spending money, and they aren’t traveling, and to be remaining even with last year is an accomplishment.”