In article <[log in to unmask]>, Mike Teskey <[log in to unmask]>
says:
>
>Does anyone have any data regarding the elatisticity of demand for museums.

Yes, Mike, we have studied pricing at NMST. In general, the drop-off is
quite steep: people will pay up to, say, $8 fairly willingly, then
resistance to higher prices mounts quickly. The inflection point varies
with each museum and market--you would have to do a pricing study of
your own to be sure. As long as it is under the break point, price does not
seem to be a major limiter of visitation. Sudden price changes may
evoke a strong response initially, however. When Canadian national museums
brought fees in, there was a significant attendance drop (see my paper in
the 1989 VSA Proceedings). When the National Gallery removed its winter fees,
there was an initial rise in attendance (healthy, but not spectacular), that
tapered off after a few years to old levels.
If you were grossly under-priced, then an increase might match visitors'
expectations better, and you could conceivably see more traffic, but this
would just be part of a larger image and positioning programme to cause
any major effect.
The interesting thing is that if you graph attendance and gross revenue for
several price levels, you'll see a "magic" price that optimizes revenue.
With the low-price, high-volume business museums are in, slight price changes
can have significant revenue consequences.

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Doug Hoy              Evaluation           National Museum of
[log in to unmask]           &              Science & Technology
(613)998-6863v         Research       P.O.Box 9724, Station T
(613)990-3654f                          Ottawa K1G 5A3 CANADA
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