[John Martinson]  I would appreciate comments, feedback or updated data on the following:   

 In 1985, 347.8 million people visited museums, in 1990 over 500 million visited.  Who visits?  Most often family groups, with parents who are 30 to 50 years in age, with children ranging n age from eight to twelve. They visit mainly children museums, zoos, and science and technology centers that consist of as high as 80% of their visiting public.
Fewer families visit natural history and history museums, and even less (10%) visit art museums. The family is the most significant factor in learning leisure activities. More males visit science museums, while females are higher at art museums and galleries.  If not with children, adults come with other adults, which account for 30-90% of visitors under sixty years of age.  Sixty years of age (+) visitors accounts for 10% of visitors.  Most adults range in the 35 to 50 year age group, and it accepted that the museum visitor is educated. 
Socioeconomic factors of visitors:  a) low-income visitors mainly visit National Parks, and visit infrequently;  b). middle income visit only certain types of museums; c) higher income levels visit art museums, however, a high amount in higher status visit all museums.   
The World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimated that there were more than 595 million international travelers in 1997.  Spending by these tourists was more than US$425 billion (again about 1/2 of Ecotourist....so not sure on statistics for ecotourism).    Ecotourists (worldwide) in 1988 amounted to 235,000,000 (though they say this is low...I cannot believe ecotourism is almost one half of total international travelers) with an economical impact of US$233 billion (a low estimate).    I am particularly interested in statistics for cultural, heritage and rural tourism, and numbers related to visitors to small, rural communities.   Why does the visitor want to leave the freeway and visit a small, rural museum? (yes, many questions....sheesh!)  

Thank You in advance!!! 

John Martinson, Salt Lake City, Utah.  Curator of Collections, This Is The
Place Heritage Park and Graduate student, Norwich College, Museology.