After September 11, 2001, the trustees of the Stephen Phillips Trust House decided to make our house museum free of charge.  It continues to be, and 2002 saw an increase of visitation of 150%.  2003 was down from 2002 about 18%, but 2004 is up from last year about 28% and right on par with our best year ever, which was 2002.  Certainly other factors are contributing to an increase in attendance (more personnel, which means more time for marketing; the re-opening of the Peabody Essex Museum, which has probably brought more visitors to Salem to begin with, etc.), but free admission seems to have been a big draw.

If you really would like to do a case study, please contact me directly.

Best,
Laurie Austin
Site Manager
Stephen Phillips Trust House
34 Chestnut St.
Salem, MA  01970
978-744-0440   fax 978-740-1086
[log in to unmask]
www.phillipsmuseum.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Sarah Brophy
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 8:04 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Museum Attendance Trends


I have a colleague who steadfastly lays the blame for decreasing admission
on easy plane travel to "exciting" places of luxury or entertainment - the
disney worlds, the lovely beaches, and other countries.  He assiduously
pushes low entrance fees as a solution - $3 and less - and as a result has
increasing attendance at his institution where nearby larger museums (and
therefore with slightly different situations) are tanking.  I heartily
endorse the concept of "lower the price and more will come more often".  If
I could find places also testing the theory, I'd do a comparative study.
I'd also love to do a financial study of museums who moved to free
admission.  SB

Sarah S. Brophy  -  bMuse
Museum Writer
570 West Street
Carlisle, MA 01741
978-371-8964
www.gis.net/~bmuse

=========================================================
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).