2003 attendance figures have now been released for many museums and tourist attractions, so IÂ’m curious as to what people are seeing as to trends. For the Chicago area, IÂ’ll give my interpretation.
1. Overall attendance at the eight major museums located in the city was down 2% in 2003. Since prior year visitation figures were down 4% from 2002, and local government funding is down an 17%, its been a tough time.
2. Trends varied significantly among institutions. Big percentage gains were seen by the Mexican Fine Arts Center (58%) and the DuSable African-American Museum (10%) reflecting the increased professionalism of these ethnic oriented attractions. The areaÂ’s largest cultural attraction (but 11th rated tourist attraction), the Shedd Aquarium, saw a 22% gain as a new $60 million addition opened. Despite its great new model railroad, the Museum of Science and Industry saw a 15% decline.
3. David Mosena, CEO of the Museum of Science and industry told the Tribune, “the museums have great exhibits—and are getting better. However, there is so much demand on people’s time: soccer games, computers, X-Box video games,. I have 100 channels on my TV.” He missed the best-documented shift in attendance—the rise of casino gaming. Four of Illinois’ top eight tourist attractions are casinos--each had more visitors then MSI. The top two boats taken together had greater attendance than the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, Bears and Black Hawks combined.
4. Free attractions should do well in a poor economy, but they all lie about their attendance figures. Did the Chicago Air and Water Show along the lakefront really see a 56% increase in attendance? Navy Pier attendance was up on paper to 8,390,000. On several visits, however, IÂ’ve never seen anyone even try to count bodies. The Taste of Chicago saw a revenue decline by vendors, which may be a more accurate gauge. People may have come for the free music, but they were cheap.
5. Governments have thrown a lot of money at tourism attraction as a form of economic development. The big gainers lately have been minor league baseball parks and children’s museums. Within the last eight years, the Chicago area has built five new minor league parks and three major children’s museums – by my estimate, their combined price tag was about $250 million. Nearly all of them are struggling financially, but they drain attendance from other venues. We also have a major new science museum, the Notebaert Center, whose 164,000 visitors will see less there than if they had gone to the Field Museum located four miles away. A new Ecology Center is in the works for the South Side—at least it’s built on a former toxic waste dump. There used to be barriers to entry in the museum world--you had to have a collection. Now we have virtual museums --they interpret things, raterh than collect.
6. People are still suckers for special events. Museums that had declining attendance typically blamed their lack of a block-buster draw. It’s a “what have you done for me lately” world and you have to offer fresh material. If nothing else, that’s the way to get press coverage. A local park saw over 400,000 visitors at $8 each for their first special exhibit in 125 years-- reportedly 95% of visitors had never been to the park before.
So what trends do you see?


fred_ash@bankone.com

The most important word is New!

At the Maritime Park we opened a new 10,000 square foot Visitor Center which is getting good attendence.

At the Western Railway Museum we have had the new Visitor Center going for almost three years now and the trend is still up.A large new building will draw attention almost anywhere you built it!
"and they will come"

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

> The most important word is New!

I had the opportunity to view the new (quite literally not quite finished) museum building at the Canadian Railway Museum in St. Constant, Quebec.

This has transformed the museum from being a "dump" of rusted locomotives and cars to a world class museum. Hopefully word will get out and the public will go and see.

Kudos to the people at the Canadian Railway Museum for finally reaching this goal.

John Stewart
Ottawa, Canada.



freewrl-1@rogers.com

A
> large new building will draw attention
> almost anywhere you built it!
> "and they will come"

Key word is "almost."

For a sobering example of building gone wrong, check out the saga of the Bellevue Art Museum. It's a long story, but in a nutshell they built a poorly planned new building and it sank the institution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/arts/ ... ner=GOOGLE

If the Museum Itself Is an Artwork, What About t
eledbetter@rypn.org

Kicking topic!

As a TVRM member (since 1965), I have watched a slow proliferation of new Chattanooga area museums and other competing attractions. Many of them publicly funded either directly through grants or indirectly through other forms of financing.

Two questions. (1.) Do you have reliable Chicago area railroad museum ridershiop figures? Many museums, like TVRM, consider that the train ride is the key interpretive event. Some do not, and have a focus on exhibits and other interpretive strategies. (2.) Can you somehow related these ridership numbers to those who may have come to a rail museum property, paid a museum facility admission, and then elected not to pay the extra charge to ride the train?

I suppose I am trying to make the Chicago area data relate to TVRM's current interpretive approach by getting numbers that are distributed amongst comparable categories.

FORECAST: This discussion thread will reach record length and be one of the most important on RYPN in months! Thanks for your outstanding post.

amiller@rtms-movietrains.com

> (2.) Can you somehow related these ridership
> numbers to those who may have come to a rail
> museum property, paid a museum facility
> admission, and then elected not to pay the
> extra charge to ride the train?

In the case of IRM, there's only an admission charge for the day (which varies slightly depending on how many trains are operating). This includes unlimited rides for the day, so there's no separation. The only other operating museum near Chicago is the Fox River Trolley Museum. In their case, there's no admission charge to the grounds, only tickets for the ride. Come to think of it, that's also true at East Troy, which is somewhat farther away.

> Two questions. (1.) Do you have reliable
> Chicago area railroad museum ridershiop
> figures? Many museums, like TVRM, consider
> that the train ride is the key interpretive
> event. Some do not, and have a focus on
> exhibits and other interpretive strategies.
> (2.) Can you somehow related these ridership
> numbers to those who may have come to a rail
> museum property, paid a museum facility
> admission, and then elected not to pay the
> extra charge to ride the train?

First, I do not believe railroad museums compete with each other for visitors to any major extent. Foamers will come anyway and the general public is just looking for a good outing — not specifically a rail-oriented day-trip. Few rail museums draw enough attendance to eclipse another railway’s operation. The exceptions may be in Northern California and Eastern Pennsylvania. No organization should aspire to be the best local railway museum—try to be the best local cultural or tourist destination. Remember the old Eskimo saying, “If you’re not the lead sled dog, the view never changes.”

Second, despite huge attendance at free events, Chicago area cultural institutions and tourist attractions with the highest per visitor ticket revenues have the highest attendance. For example, all-in costs is about $25 per person to see the Shedd Aquarium plus its dolphin show. Food, trinkets and expensive parking are extras. To get season tickets to the Bear’s new stadium, purchasers had to by “rights” to purchase the tickets, the tickets and parking. All in, it cost a family of four about $15,000. Then they charge $6 for hotdogs. As an aside, do you know why most stadiums have a sea of parking spaces? They don’t want $2 hotdogs available near the gates. The bottom line is that you have to deliver a good product to charge high prices, but when you deliver, you attract a crowd at even when your pricing is high (please, no comments about the lowly Bears). The current industry trend is to have an admission charge and add pricy premium features -- think IMAX.

Third, relating to another post, a “build it and they will come” philosophy rarely works in the long run. Attendance peaks for two years at most, but that’s long enough for many organizations to ramp up staffing and other expensive “must-haves” budget items. Then reality prevails and it’s often painful, if not fatal.



fred-ash@bankone.com

NCTM was off 2003 vs. 2002.. and 2002 was off from 2001...for the last two years, we were down 13.7 percent to 93,800.

Some trends: Special events were good and heathy, but daily walk in traffic is down. There is a complex mix of factors in this: the tremendous lull in N.C. manufacturing, a lot of road work on Interstate 85 between Charlotte and Spencer and a whole lot more entertainment today than there was 20 years ago. There also is the need for "something new" at the museum to bring in folks.

2004 should be a good year with an improving economy, some new events, some tinkers to existing daily operations and the completion of some road work as well as a great emphasis on marketing.



http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com

All --

Consider this question:

Why/How do visitors at other attractions (museums of all genre; Six Flags; sporting events) make their decision to NOT go to the local railroad museum. Obviously some don't know we exist. So making them "Aware" (the second step, after "Getting Their Attention," in most purchase process models) clearly is part of the problem. But of those who know a railroad museum exists, why don't they show up? Is it a "been there, done that" evaluation?

Looking a ridership trends and other data can provide inferences. However, getting good research data from the 99.995% of a region's population that does NOT visit is the real challenge. Short of surveying competitors' patrons -- which might get you the ole heave-ho from the local volkspolitzei -- I am at a loss as to how to figure out how to do efficiently and cheaply find the answers.

Comment?

Yes, the data we could collect at the gate is only from people who have already decided to go to the museum that day, not the other millions who didn't.

We try for the family outing - grandparent with grandkids, Moms/Dads/kids, not fans.

What do they need? Clean facilities, fun times. Bathrooms that flush and are clean. What do most railroad museum do worst - maintenance! These two needs do not match up.

What do most railroad museum do best - collect! The public doesn't need another piece on "junk" on the property - they need what is already there washed and painted.

So - who are we serving? If it's the general public - spend more money on bathrooms and welcome centers and less on the collection.

BTW - we remain down in attendence from when we first opened, but, we are holding our own.



Pacific Southwest Ry Museum
jim@sdrm.org

What about the level of volunteers at your museum? We have a concern that as railroads become less and less common on the public minds, that we will get less and less volunteers. Gone are the days of hanging out with the station agent at the local depot. He's gone, and the station is boarded up. Gone on the multiple color locos and freight cars - what - four railroads now! Gone is the ability to sit trackside and enjoy the view - police hassle you now.

With the "me" generation, with more electronics that I ever knew existed, can we continue to attrach the live blood of all railroad museums - the volunteer?

At our place, we actually gained five active volunteers and lost two due to age.

Pacific Southwest Ry Museum
jim@sdrm.org

Craig Lacey may want to post a comment confirming or denying the success of the following.

Something that we did at Heber Valley about two and a half years ago was change to a major ticketing system (SmithTix) which is operated through a regional major grocery chain. So when the public goes to see what major bands are going to be in concert, or get tickets to the circus, basketball game, etc. they see on the list of upcoming/ongoing events -- Heber Valley Railroad.

I have made sure that the two local outlets in my area are kept well-stocked with the railroad's brochures which cover our year-round schedule, special events such as Thomas, Murder/Mystery trains, dinner trains, etc, has the fare schedule, mentions the gift shop, and solicits special events such as charter trips. The managers at the two ticket outlets don't mind the little brochure rack because it helps them with increased sales (this in an industry that measures floor space by the sales volume and not by the square foot).

It is my impression that the system has worked very well (somewhat to the chagrin of the Thomas people) particularly for the special events such as Thomas and our "train which carries a special white-bearded visitor dressed in red and white from a place up north to visit with the kids on the train at Christmas time" (we can't call it the "Polar Express" after 1/1/04 and Universal couldn't copyright the term 'Christmas'--though they must have tried).

And while, as a conductor, "punching" a passenger's dot-matrix or laser printer generated ticket just doesn't have the same nostalgic feel to it, how can you argue against what it does for the bottom line?

just for your consideration...

sc 'doc' lewis

Heber Valley Railroad
utweyesguy@aol.com

One other Southwest area museum I know of has just about dismantled its working membership base just to please a few with nearly uncontested control of the organization's agenda. It's now a clique instead of an open, vital organization. Memberships and volunteer effort have both dropped off.

> At our place, we actually gained five active
> volunteers and lost two due to age.

> One other Southwest area museum I know of
> has just about dismantled its working
> membership base just to please a few with
> nearly uncontested control of the
> organization's agenda. It's now a clique
> instead of an open, vital organization.
> Memberships and volunteer effort have both
> dropped off.

Sounds familiar to me here in the midwest, I can think of one or two clubs with the same problems.


lamontdc@adelphia.net

> Sounds familiar to me here in the midwest, I
> can think of one or two clubs with the same
> problems.
I know of 2 CLUBS in conn. going the same way. Why don't the people on the board do there job and stop this waste? bb