We have not offered foreign trips in several years [before my time here].  I believe they were rather successful in the early-mid  90's.  The past two years we have begun 3-4 days trips [Delaware, Williamsburg] and they have filled well and been successful.  Paid staff do all the planning in house for these trips.  We are planning Washington DC  for next spring.  For the first time I contacted a travel company in California and tied into one of their trips to New Mexico.  They do everything, we don't even take registration or pass out information. [just mail out info letter to museum members].  We added $100 pr person to the cost and it comes back to the museum [$ maker].  The company is combining 3 different museums on this trip [and it's a go because of the numbers from the other museums].  It is schedule for September, but we do not have any registered yet.
I'm afraid to get to deep into travel, because we won't have enough response.  We offer day trips that some times do not run because of lack of registration.  I personally adventure travel with adventure companies[Asia, Africa, etc] but nobody of our membership will do what I do, and we don't seem to have a good method of attracting new membership.  While people seem to have  more discretionary income, they are not spending it here!

>>> [log in to unmask] 06/05/00 03:52PM >>>
Over the past twenty-some years, our museum's foreign travel committee has planned and executed many successful oversees trips.  Up until recently the trips were usually fully booked.  But during the past few years we have experienced a decline in trip enrollment.

We know that many other museums are encountering similar problems.  Our customer base is aging, and younger people are less inclined to go on structured tours.  And it is essentially the same committee that has been working on these trips from the beginning.  They're weary --
especially since their efforts are going towards a trip that they don't consider completely successful.

We are reluctant to drop the program.  Not only is it a money-maker for the museum, but it provides a benefit to membership.

What are other museums doing about this problem?  Have you turned to a travel agency to plan your trips (and cut down on the amount of money raised)?  Are you collaborating with other museums in order to appeal to a wider audience?  Have you dropped museum-sponsored oversees trips?
Are you changing the structure of your trips to appeal to different age groups?

Our foreign travel committee is in the process of deciding how to continue.  Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Heather Price
Ella Sharp Museum
Jackson, Michigan
[log in to unmask] 
http://www.ellasharp.org/ 

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).

========================================================Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).