Fresno’s Tourism Declining

As travel restrictions continue, the Forestiere Underground Gardens tourist attraction in Fresno has been receiving far fewer visitors than usual. Before the pandemic, the garden would receive over forty-thousand visitors throughout the year, averaging about two hundred different people per day. Now it averages about thirty per day.

Alondra Kramer has worked in the garden for three years. She is sad to see the decrease in tourists. “Lots of our visitors are international travelers, and so international travel being really restricted, it has impacted how many people visit us,” said Kramer.

The underground gardens are over one hundred and ten years old. Due to the pandemic and county guidelines, the garden has been forced to minimize its tour sizes and has moved its reservation process online.

“We weren’t really getting too many people on weekends so we had to close down on weekends. We don’t get a lot of money from the state so we depend on our visitors and unfortunately, a lot of them are missing due to travel restrictions,” said Kramer.

The garden is trying to make up for sales through their gift shop. Forestiere Underground Gardens are still open Monday through Fridays with limited spaces.

If you are interested in checking it out, or for more information you can go to their website at http://www.undergroundgardens.com/