On Thursday, 14 September 1995 Karen Anderson wrote:

<We are fortunate enough to have guards stationed at the doors to our>
<museum. The guards have small hand-held thumb-activated counters and>
<part of their job is counting visitors. This is probably one of the>
<most accurate methods, but if you don't already have someone at the>
>door it obviously isn't very cost-efficient.>
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Karen W. Anderson, Registrar
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Canyon, Texas, USA
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But if, as was my experience, the guards think that if the visitor numbers
drop, some of them will get laid off, then the numbers may not be very
believable!  Ultimately the numbers of tickets sold balanced against
receipts is the only certain method - but that's not much help if you don't
sell tickets.

Stuart Park
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,
Wellington, New Zealand.
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