WACO, Texas — If you visit downtown Waco, chances are you might meet someone visiting from out of town.

The Warren family is from Nevada. They recently stopped by the Dr. Pepper Museum. 

"It's been real fun so far, real informative and [we] want to go back and spend some more time," said Brett Warren as his family participated in the museum's Make-A-Soda program. 

Mary Beth Farrell is the director of development and communications. She has worked at the Dr. Pepper Museum since around 2004. Over the years, she has seen many changes happen both downtown and at the museum.

"We had been on a really great upwards trajectory of visitation every year since about 2015. In 2019, we had over 170,000 visitors come through. And then in 2020 because of the pandemic we were right at 100,000, so still a good year, but definitely down from last year and down from the increase we had planned on," explained Farrell.

However, she says tourists are starting to return. So far this year, they have welcomed more than 35,000 guests and about 20,000 people visited in March.

"The museum is actually a nonprofit. We are not owned or operated by Dr. Pepper which is something a lot of people don't know about us. But we're just a history museum and we operate off of our visitors coming through the door," said Farrell, hopeful for a tourism boost to continue.