By Mike Harris Wednesday, July 17th, 2024

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley remains the biggest tourism draw in Ventura County, but attendance still hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic.

“Museums just aren’t that pre-pandemic level,” library spokeswoman Melissa Giller told the Business Times at a July 12 tourism program put on by the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce at the Sheraton Agoura Hills.

Even so, the library continues to be the most visited presidential library in the nation, and the third largest tourism destination in the tri-county region behind the Hearst Castle in San Simeon and the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Visitors can tour the museum portion of the library, which tells the story of Reagan’s life and also features regular traveling exhibitions such as the current “Defending America and the Galaxy: Star Wars and SDI.”

Reagan was president from 1981-89.

Pre-pandemic, Giller said, the library averaged about 375,000 to 400,000 visitors a year.

The library was closed for 14 months during the pandemic, which broke out in early 2020.

When it re-opened in May 2021, it drew about 65,000 visitors through September, Giller said.

In 2022, attendance grew to about 222,000 visitors.

Last year, the library drew about 287,000 visitors, in large part due to its exhibition on the Nazi Auschwitz death camp, she said.

Attendance this year is projected to be about 250,000 visitors, Giller said.

She said the library, which opened in 1991, hopes to hit pre-pandemic visitor levels again at some point.

“We thought we would have done it by now,” she said.

“But I’ve spoken to a lot of cultural institutions in the Southern California area, and everyone seems to be in the same boat as we are,” Giller said.

She said the library is such a popular draw in large part because of its Air Force One exhibit, which allows visitors to walk through the jet Reagan used during his presidency, dubbed the “flying White House.”

“There’s very few places in the world where you can tour an actual Air Force One,” Giller said.

Visitors also come to see the library’s traveling exhibitions and to learn about Reagan, she said.

The library’s most attended exhibition, she said, was 2016’s Vatican Splendors, which brought in 200,000 people in six months.

The library also features a regular speaker series. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, for instance, is scheduled to speak there Aug. 8.

Danielle Borja, the chamber’s president and CEO and moderator of the July 12 program, said tourism in the Conejo Valley is also recovering from the pandemic.

“We’re above pandemic numbers for this year,” she said. “And with the investments you’re seeing, we’re only going to see those numbers grow.”

The region, which includes Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks, has about 650,000 annual overnight stays, she said.

Its 18 hotels generate $80 million in annual revenue, Borja said.

“There are a lot of people coming into our area,” she said.

The region boasts a strong corporate travel market and a robust weekend social market for such events as weddings and sports tournaments, she said.

email: mharris@pacbiztimes.com