First, assume you can collect from attractions on average only every so many hours.
Here is an example...
- wake up, collect
- school or work, 8 hours, then collect
- after school / evening hours = 6 x 1 hour intervals
- go to sleep, 10 hours, repeat
Then this would be an average of (8,1,1,1,1,1,1,10) = 3 hours. This is 180 minutes. You can use your own schedule to figure out your own average but it won't change the results below very much. I have found that as I played the game longer and longer I am less attentive to the schedule and so I collect more like every 6 hours on average now.
Next, here are the attractions, how much space they occupy, what they cost & earn, and how long it takes (everything is in minutes). I do not know how to post a table so this will be a bit messy.
Item Squares Cost Time Delay B4 Reset "Gold Earned" "Gold/Hr/Sq wo. delay" "Gold/Hr/Sq w. delay" "Bonus XP" "Gold/ Bonus XP"
Cotton Candy 4 3 gem 120 360 33 4.13 1.38 6 0.5 gem
Ice Cream 4 35 60 360 16 4.00 0.67 2 17.5
Gift Shop 16 40 360 360 46 0.48 0.48 5 8.0
Sandwich 8 45 60 360 21 2.63 0.44 2 22.5
Botanical 16 300 360 360 38 0.40 0.40 47 6.4
Hot Dog 4 35 15 360 8 8.00 0.33 1 35.0
Popcorn 4 35 15 360 8 8.00 0.33 1 35.0
Pizza 16 7 gem 360 360 29 0.30 0.30 42 0.2 gem
Caf? 16 220 180 360 23 0.48 0.24 29 7.6
First Aid 16 150 180 360 21 0.44 0.22 21 7.1
Recycle 16 60 360 360 21 0.22 0.22 17 3.5
Nursery 16 149 gem 1,440 1,440 74 0.19 0.19 21 7.1 gem
Ferris Wheel 36 33 gem 360 360 23 0.11 0.11 10 3.3 gem
Carousel 36 500 120 360 10 0.14 0.05 62 8.1
The table is sorted in descending order of Gold per Hour Per Square with the "delay" meaning use the average collection time.
As you can see the best item is the Cotton Candy stand but it costs gems. The next best items are the Ice Cream shop and the Gift Shop.
The Ice Cream Shop is small, so you pack more of them in your zoo. It earns 16 gold in the first hour but then just sits there until you collect, so the gold per hour declines if you have a delay, as I have factored in. Ice Cream shops do have another advantage, which is: being small and more numerous, they present more options for your neighbors to tour and give you a bonus, and if you really are collecting every hour they reset more often.
The Gift Shop is bigger so you can't fit in as many, but it earns 46 gold over 6 hours.
Notice the Sandwich shop is not as good as the ice cream shop because it is twice as big. All the other items are fine for aesthetics but not for earning max gold !
A lot of people fill their zoo with Popcorn Stand or Hotdog Stand, because they have the highest unmodified Gold/Hr/Sq ratio, at =8. But they are only worth it if you really will revisit the zoo to collect every 15 minutes. You might think you'll do so at first, but then you'll realize you might want to bath, eat, sleep, work or attend school.
As a side note, if you need some quick XP and can spare the gold, the item that gives the most bonus XP for buying/placing the item, is the Recycle Center, at only 3.5 gold per bonus XP. You can buy/sell/repeat to quickly burst over into a new level.
In summary, if you want the most GOLD from ATTRACTIONS:
- use mostly ICE CREAM SHOPS or GIFT SHOPS
And to gain XP quickly (costing gold), use the RECYCLE CENTER.