Good Afternoon All, As part of our cyclical planning process, I am looking at the annual attendance trends of the facilities comprising the Pink Palace Family of Museums. The overall trend for the past several years has been one of a slow decline. Last fiscal year was 424,576....lowest in a decade....the late 1990s had highs over 600,000. This overall decline begs the questions, Question #1 "Is there nation-wide an overall decline in museum attendance?" Question #2 "Nation-wide, are there any root causes for this decline?" Such as: 9/11 and the economy? Too many opportunities for family leisure-time competing with museum visits? Or something else? I would appreciate any research papers, journal articles, surveys, or thoughts you may have on this matter. Also, if you wish to relate any attendance trends (over the last several years)for your museum, science center, historic home......please contact me. Thank you, Wesley Wesley S. Creel Administrator of Programs Pink Palace Family of Museums 3050 Central Avenue Memphis, TN 38111-3399 www.memphismuseums.org (901) 320-6370 Direct (901) 320-6391 FAX ========================================================= 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).