Beech Tree News Network

FRANKFORT, Ky. (July 17, 2026) — Legislators on the Interim Joint Committee on Tourism, Small Business and Information Technology received an update Tuesday as a 10-year tax incentive ended this month for the Ark Encounter theme park in Grant County.

Eddie Lutz, director of attraction and resource sales for the Ark Encounter, said since it’s opening, the attraction has seen more than 9 million guests, including 16,800 bus groups “almost exclusively all from out of state.”

According to his testimony, Kentucky tourism has seen record-setting numbers for three-years in a row with rural Williamstown and Dry Ridge benefitting greatly from Ark Encounter visitors. Around 92% of the tourists visiting the attraction are travelling from outside a 200-mile radius.

“When coupled with the Creation Museum, we see 1.5 million visitors to the two attractions every year,” Lutz said.

Committee co-chair, Rep. Kim King, R-Harrodsburg said when visiting recently she counted license plates in the parking lot from 15 other states outside Kentucky.

Since 2016, 20 hotels have been built in Northern Kentucky to specifically handle Ark Encounter guests. The organization partners with 51 hotels located in the vicinity.

“Just because they’re coming to the Ark doesn’t mean they’re necessarily on a faith-based tour. People want to have fun they want to see something new – they want to see something they can’t see anywhere else,” Lutz said.

Sen. Matt Nunn, R-Sadieville said he was very proud to have the Ark exhibit in his district and affirmed it as a huge economic driver, describing it as a “powerhouse throughout the region.”

Lutz said the Ark Encounter partners with many other programs throughout Louisville and Lexington promoting attractions in other areas of the state.

The property also includes a 2,500-seat theater that hosts national conferences and other daily programing.

A welcome center completed two months ago and the second largest restaurant in America are also on the 850-acre property, Lutz said.

Lutz said the Ark Encounter was a part of a Kentucky tax incentive, which included a rebate on taxes spent within the park and was intended to bring tourism dollars to the state.

With the millions of visitors, “you more than reimbursed the state for the incentive dollars,” Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, said.

Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, asked Lutz how much the incentives or rebates totaled and what the money was used for over the past 10 years.

Lutz said he did not have that information on hand but was willing to provide it.

Kulkarni asked Lutz how the organization makes its money, and he said it consists of three organizations: two non-profit organizations and the Ark Encounter as “a for-profit owned by a nonprofit.”

The organization makes money on event and ticket sales, but the development is all from private donation, he said. Lutz estimates the organization employs anywhere between 1,100 and 1,400 people, depending on the time of year.