COURTESY USS MISSOURI MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION INC.
About 1,600 Amway Group members from China
visited the Battleship Missouri Memorial in January.
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Capitalizing on the temporary closure of the USS Arizona Memorial and hoping to bolster its own government-shutdown drop in visitors, the Battleship Missouri Memorial today will launch a new tour from its own pier highlighting the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Arizona.
"Our pier offers the best possible vantage point," said Michael A. Carr, president and chief operating officer of the Battleship Missouri Memorial.
The Missouri’s 1,000-foot pier extends to a point that’s only a couple hundred feet away from the USS Arizona Memorial.
The aim of the free tour, according to Carr, is to ensure a continued flow of visitors to the Mighty Mo while trying to satisfy those tourists who had planned to visit the USS Arizona Memorial.
Carr on Wednesday reported a 30 percent decline in visitors to the Missouri compared with the same time last year, due in part to the closing of the Arizona ticket office, which sells passes and package deals that include the Missouri, USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Pacific Aviation Museum.
Additionally, he said, there’s a false belief the USS Missouri and the Pacific Aviation Museum are run by the federal government and are closed because of the shutdown.
Purchasing tickets to the Battleship Missouri Memorial is not required for the special USS Arizona tour.
The Missouri is also offering a free round-trip shuttle service near the Arizona Visitor Center to the Battleship Missouri Memorial and Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor. Limited parking is available and bags are not permitted.