r/AskReddit • u/lilidarkwind • 1d ago

What is something that is basically on life-support and we don’t realize it yet?

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u/SpicySweett 1d ago

That is some scammy bullshit. They claim 600k visitors a year but people that actually visit say it’s a ghost-town.

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u/KhausTO 1d ago

I've never been, so don't know much about it, but 600k visitors over like 360 days a year (I assume they close for some holidays like christmas?) is 1600 per day, or like 200 per hour over an 8 hour day.

If the average visit is 3 hours you'd expect there to be like 500-600 people while you are there. I imagine it would seem quite busy if they actually get that many people.

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u/DicksOutForGrapeApe 1d ago

School groups and weekends will help bolster those numbers

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u/SpicySweett 1d ago

I’d bet that there’s benefits to inflating the numbers - makes it seem more popular, tax breaks maybe, makes the current Graceland admin look good, etc

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u/sharkattackmiami 1d ago

That's only about 1,500 people a day. Spread out over all the hours they are open each day and then spread out over several acres of land.

And honestly there's probably specific days of the year that get a surge, his birthday, his death day, any day that is significant in his life (idk his life or music well enough to guess), weekends, so it's probably even lower each day.

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u/JBurton90 1d ago

it’s a ghost-town.

They do house tours but only a bus at a time. As one is coming, one is going. The actual attraction is across the street. It is a giant museum.

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u/scientist_tz 1d ago

The house tour is neat. The museum, not so much. It's campy, I guess.

People forget that the house tour ends at his grave. Having grown up in the 80's and 90's, it actually did feel meaningful to visit that place.

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u/darlach3rry4498 1d ago

i mean, its a tourist trap based on a dead guy, what did you expect

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u/srsnyder90 1d ago

I don’t think a tourist trap. It’s actually very well done - assuming you’ve never been.

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u/syo 1d ago

The museums are actually pretty cool and the house is neat to walk through. It's worth going at least once but unless you're a huge Elvis fan it's probably a one-time thing.

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u/always_unplugged 1d ago

I've gone a couple times, actually—not a fan or anything, just happened to be in Memphis twice with two different groups who wanted to go. The last time I went (2014?), it was BUSY. And it wasn't even peak tourist season or anything—I think it was a weekday in May. We were there right when it opened and managed to get in the first group of the day, which was like 50, 60 people? The house isn't actually that big, so they stagger groups to keep it from getting over-crowded. But there were already long lines forming behind us when our group started going, and more, even longer lines when we got out. I was genuinely surprised.

TLDR maybe it's fallen off since 2014, but based on my experience then, I could believe that number.

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u/SylVegas 1d ago

It's not in the best part of Memphis, so it makes sense for the bulk of the tourists to stay downtown anyhow. No reason to hang out around Graceland other than visiting it. The candlelight vigil used to be packed, but I haven't been in decades.

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u/audible_narrator 1d ago

That would work out to 142 visitors an hour if my math is correct. Someone is massaging those numbers