Cypress Gardens to Close as Visits Decline

Cypress Gardens, billed as Florida’s oldest theme park and a pioneer in the state’s tourism industry, will close because of a drop in visitors since the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said Thursday.

The park, known for its water-ski shows and Southern belles, will close Sunday. Cypress Gardens, in Winter Haven, about 35 miles southwest of Orlando, opened in the 1930s and served as the backdrop for Esther Williams movies during its heyday.

The park never recovered from the tourism drop after the 2001 terrorist attacks, Cypress Gardens officials said, and the fear of travel generated by the war in Iraq wor- sened the situation.

The park had 42,000 fewer visitors in March 2003 than it did in March 2002, park spokeswoman Stacy Huey said.

“This is a painful decision which the owners and operators ... have little or no control over,” Huey said.