91/ 100
HotTier 2Enriched
New England Aquarium
A year-round nonprofit aquarium, conservation organization and ticketed visitor attraction on Central Wharf in Boston.
Research snapshot2026-08-2117 cited sources · 6/6 modules complete Open PDF Report
ICP score91/1002026-08-21 · Evidence-gated Tier 2 attraction score
Owned attendance1.34M2024 · Aquarium-reported attendance
Instagram followers136K2026-08-21 · Point-in-time public profile count
Current openings22026-08-21 · Visible official ATS listings
Logan passengers43.2M2025 · Market proxy - not Aquarium footfall
Visual evidence profile
What supports the opportunity
Source composition and verified operating momentum at a glance.
Evidence mix17 cited sources
Six-segment module readiness strip
Verified growth trendOwned Aquarium attendance
Attendance remained 47% above 2021 but was 2.9% below 2023, indicating a strong recovered base with recent cooling rather than uninterrupted growth.
Visual intelligence map
Research coverage
Each branch maps directly to a required module in the plugin’s canonical report schema.
Why this lead fits CTM
New England Aquarium combines 1.34 million owned annual visits, a live 2026 exhibit-and-summer campaign, a named marketing/visitor-experience buyer and strong Boston arrival flows. The FY2024 deficit, slight attendance cooling and unverified CTM inventory keep the opportunity below a near-certain score.
Fit reasons
The Aquarium is a bookable, year-round visitor attraction that reported 1.34 million owned visits in 2024.
A July 2026 exhibit opening, renovated lobby, extended hours, paid experiences, films and waterfront dining create a current campaign window.
Suzanne Liola Matus is publicly identified as Vice President, Marketing, Sales, and Visitor Experience.
Boston Logan handled 43.2 million passengers in 2025, including a record 10 million international passengers, while Flynn Cruiseport handled more than 454,000 passengers.
Risks and unknowns
The annual report shows $3.1 million of negative net assets from operations in FY2024; the IRS-derived filing separately reports a $685,502 deficit.
Owned attendance eased from 1.38 million in 2023 to 1.34 million in 2024, a 2.9% decline after the post-2021 recovery.
Existing-customer status, exact Boston inventory, route cadence, budget owner and attribution access require human confirmation before outreach.
Evidence modules
Lead intelligence structure
Each module uses a view tailored to its canonical evidence type—reports, momentum, channels, leaders, roles, or demand.
01Analyzed reportsThe 2024 annual report and latest IRS-derived Form 990 data were analyzed together. They corroborate scale, attendance and balance-sheet capacity while using different reporting presentations that should not be merged as one series.Complete
Reported Performance11 verified metrics
Operating revenue and support$52.515MFY2024
Operating costs and expenses$55.615MFY2024
Net assets from operations-$3.100MFY2024
Ending net assets$95.941MFY2024
Total Aquarium attendance1.34M2024
BPS Sundays attendance40K+2024 · Aquarium-reported access-program participation
Reviewed Reports2 records
annual report · FY2024 with FY2023 comparisons and a 2021-2024 attendance series2024 Annual Report
Reports visitor access, exhibit and conservation progress, four years of attendance, and condensed operating results.
Form 990 · Fiscal year ending December 2024Fiscal Year Ending December 2024 Form 990 extracted filing data
The latest public filing confirms the legal entity, revenue/expense scale, asset base and current CEO filing data.
Total Aquarium attendance was 1.34 million in 2024 after 1.38 million in 2023, 1.25 million in 2022 and 0.91 million in 2021.
Boston Public Schools Sundays drew more than 40,000 attendees; the report says nearly half of participants in that program and its Boston Family Days successor were first-time Aquarium visitors.
The Aquarium opened the nearly 5,000-gallon Healthy Corals, Healthy Reefs exhibit in November 2024.
Additional Evidence12 items
Additional Metrics
MCAF cumulative projects230+25-year program history through 2024
Revenue$54.646MFY2024 Form 990
Expenses$55.331MFY2024 Form 990
Total assets$126.594MFY2024 Form 990
Total liabilities$30.592MFY2024 Form 990
Additional Signals
Expand visitor access, refresh exhibits, strengthen conservation research and mobilize public action for ocean health.
Gifts and grants fell materially year over year, driving most of the operating-revenue decline and a negative operating result.
The filing reports $54.646 million of revenue, $55.331 million of expenses, a $685,502 deficit and $96.003 million of net assets.
Program-service revenue was $35.141 million, 64.3% of total revenue, while contributions were $10.252 million.
The filing's deficit confirms financial-discipline sensitivity but does not establish that campaign funding is unavailable.
Research Boundaries
Annual-report operating results and Form 990 totals use different classifications; this report presents them separately and does not calculate a cross-presentation growth rate.
The annual-report page exposes no newer full annual report than 2024 as of the snapshot date.
02Growth signalsAttendance recovered strongly from 2021 through 2023 before easing in 2024, while the 2026 harbor exhibit, lobby refresh and expanded summer product stack create a fresh visitor-acquisition trigger. Financial capacity is meaningful but operating results warrant a bounded proposal.Complete
A new 1,000-gallon New England Harbor exhibit opened in July 2026 following spring lobby renovations.
The summer offer includes extended 9 a.m.-6 p.m. hours through Labor Day, weekday regional discounts, paid behind-the-scenes tours, three films and seven-day dining.
Whale Watch and Boston Duck Tours partnerships create nearby combination and cross-promotion routes at Central Wharf.
Prioritize the remaining summer and early-fall window for a tightly geo-targeted visitor-discovery test; use the harbor exhibit and combination experiences as the creative anchor.
Additional Evidence2 items
Additional Signals
A seasonal campaign must avoid overcommitting after Labor Day and should account for weekends and holidays that already sell out.
Research Boundaries
No comparable owned attendance, ticket-conversion or campaign-spend series for 2025-2026 was found.
03Social activityInstagram provides a large, high-frequency public channel with direct visitor and partner calls to action, while YouTube provides a slower, research-and-education layer. Other official channels are linked from the first-party site but were not sampled at post level.Complete
Additional Evidence8 items
Additional Signals
Staff expertise and behind-the-scenes operations
The sampled summer post explicitly invited users to book an Aquarium Whale Watch, visit the Aquarium, use waterfront dining and support rescue work.
Profile bio uses a link hub, creating a trackable campaign handoff surface.
Boston Harbor City Cruises was featured as the whale-watch partner.
The Great Elephant Migration and the 'Quin House were featured in a conservation-beneficiary post with CEO participation.
Conservation partnerships, aquaculture research, coastal-city climate action and exhibit follow-up
Research Boundaries
Instagram engagement is a point-in-time visible sample and excludes hidden reach, saves, audience demographics and paid-media performance.
Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn links were verified from the official site but were not sampled at post level; no cross-channel performance conclusion is claimed.
04C-suite activityCurrent official leadership identifies both the executive sponsor and the buyer who spans marketing, sales and visitor experience. The CEO also appeared publicly in a current conservation-partnership activation.Complete
President and CEOVikki N. Spruill
Frame any executive escalation around visitor access, partnership execution and measurable support for the Aquarium's active seasonal proposition.
Vice President, Marketing, Sales, and Visitor ExperienceSuzanne Liola Matus
Lead with the active harbor-exhibit and summer product stack, then test hotel/transportation/waterfront placements against trackable ticket and combination-product actions.
Decision PathPublic buying signals
Exhibit renewal, inclusive visitor access, scientific leadership and external conservation partnerships.
Executive sponsor for a strategic or partnership-led visitor-discovery program; not the recommended first operational contact.
Her public role combines the audience, revenue and on-site experience functions most relevant to a CTM pilot.
Additional Evidence3 items
Additional Signals
Recommended initial buyer for visitor acquisition, campaign timing, ticket-conversion measurement and experience alignment.
Research Boundaries
No direct public statement by Matus about paid media, budget or 2026 acquisition goals was found; her buying role is inferred from the current official title.
Leadership titles and current role ownership must be rechecked immediately before contact.
05Hiring activityTwo openings were visible on the official ATS on August 21, 2026. Both sit in Volunteer Programs & Internships, signaling investment in career pathways, recruiting and program operations rather than a direct marketing-team buildout.Complete
2Visible RolesPublic openings connected to this lead
Volunteer Programs & Internships · Central Wharf, Boston, MA, United StatesCareer Pathways Specialist
The role recruits and supports apprentices, builds college/community partnerships and manages program workflows in Salesforce.
Volunteer Programs & Internships · Central Wharf, Boston, MA, United StatesHR Operations Coordinator - Volunteer Programs
The six-month role supports volunteer/internship operations, Salesforce records, reports, communications and service workflows.
Career pathways and access for underrepresented Greater Boston talent
Volunteer/internship program operations, data quality and stakeholder service
Hiring supports community-program capacity; it is not evidence of increased paid-media budget.
Additional Evidence2 items
Research Boundaries
Visible job counts can change daily; refresh the official ATS within 14 days of any outreach.
The checked board exposed no marketing or sales opening, but that does not prove those teams are static or fully staffed.
06Visitor activityThe Aquarium reports a large owned audience and an access-program cohort, while Massport documents substantial air and cruise arrivals into the Boston market. The arrival metrics are market proxies and are not presented as Aquarium footfall.Complete
Demand & DistributionOwned metrics remain distinct from market proxies
Total Aquarium attendance1.34M2024 · Owned first-party attendance
BPS Sundays attendance40K+2024 · Owned access-program audience
Boston Logan passengers43.2M2025 · Market proxy - not owned Aquarium footfall
Boston Logan international passengers10.0M2025 · Market proxy - not owned Aquarium footfall
Flynn Cruiseport passengers454K+2025 · Market proxy - not owned Aquarium footfall
Summer hours run daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Labor Day, with seven-day waterfront dining and seasonal cross-sell experiences.
The visitor page warns that weekends and holidays often sell out, so acquisition should prioritize need periods and available timed-entry inventory.
Boston families are an explicitly served access audience; nearly half of participants in BPS Sundays/Boston Family Days were first-time Aquarium visitors.
Logan's 10 million international passengers and 454,000-plus cruise passengers indicate large inbound visitor pools, but no conversion link to the Aquarium is claimed.
Additional Evidence4 items
Additional Signals
Central Wharf sits within a visitor cluster that includes Aquarium Whale Watch and hourly Boston Duck Tours departures.
CTM describes brochure distribution in hotels, attractions, visitor centers, airports and transportation corridors - environments aligned with Boston arrival and in-market decision moments, subject to verified local inventory.
Research Boundaries
Logan and Cruiseport traffic are Boston-market proxies, not the Aquarium's visitors; overlap, trip purpose and Aquarium conversion are unknown.
No owned 2025-2026 attendance, source-market mix, ticket-conversion baseline or daypart occupancy series was found.
A bounded arrival-stage campaign can test whether high-intent Boston visitors respond to the new harbor exhibit and combination experiences when they encounter Aquarium creative in hotels, transportation hubs and visitor environments.
Recommended solution
Evaluate a Boston-core brochure or rack-card pilot anchored on the New England Harbor exhibit, Aquarium tickets and whale-watch/film combinations; add digital support only where current CTM inventory is confirmed.
Pilot hypothesis
Contextual visibility at visitor decision points may produce incremental qualified ticket sessions during selected need periods, especially among travelers already moving through the waterfront and downtown visitor network.
Measurement plan
Use placement- or corridor-specific QR codes and UTMs that land on the current ticket or combination-product page; record scans, qualified sessions, checkout starts and completed purchases where analytics permits.
Run a pre/post or holdout comparison across matched weeks, separating weekends/holidays and capacity-constrained dates from true demand lift.
Track distribution quantity and replenishment alongside digital actions; never infer Aquarium visits from brochure movement or Boston arrival volumes alone.