Well, T.W., I flatly reject your "does not work" statement.  Many of us
in the museum world are all too well aware that comparisons are in fact
constantly being made between museum experiences and theme-park
entertainment.
To elicit any meaningful statistics about perceptions of value
received vs. cost would require considerable ingenuity in asking the
"right" questions.  I agree fully with T.W. on the importance of the
questions. Our disagreement centers on ways of locating appropriate
groups whose opinions and perceptions could be collected and evaluated.

David Haberstich

The problem is that very, VERY few museums ever conduct enough visitor
research to know who their own populations are and how these are
changing over time - and they can change dramatically, very quickly, as
the Canadian War Museum discovered.  Unless you regularly conduct
visitor research, you will never REALLY know, Why is so little visitor
research done? I conclude that it is because people think it is
something that is best left to the specialists and it is
therefore fiendishly expensive. It can be, no doubt, but as I will be
saying in a presentation on do-it-yourself visitor research to Parks
Canada next week,
Most of my consulting practice is built around visitor studies. Anyone
can learn to do it and I can even show you a way to conduct a useful
study for under $25! I hesitate to use this list for advertising, but
being concerned about the visitors starts with learning who they are and
what they want and how happy they are and how they are being affected by
what you do - and we all need to do far more to determine the answers to
these questions.
THAT is what will bring in more visitors. Mental gymnastics over museums
vs. theme parks won't.

Harry Needham, M.A., CFE, etc

        David, I still say the comparison does not work; in that Theme
park/entertainment vs. museuns/education are coming from opposite
directions and aiming ( I hope ) at different goals. The theme park's
only consern is getting the coustmers' dollars. Charging what the public
will bear and giveing as little as they can get by with. I.e. gain the
highest return on investment as quickly as possible. Where as the
museum/educational instution is tring to enlighten.
        Now if at a theme park a visitor learns something, it is coincidental
to the having fun. While at the museum having fun is ( or was)
coincidental. Not that enjoying the expreance is not a good thing to aim
at. But if David is correct and we are competing for the customers'
dollar head to head; did we not lose our way here some where?
        Harry could not be more right, though he to misses the important mark.
As he would survey the current visitors, which is good but leaves a vary
large poportion of the population out of the loop.
        As David points out that the population is hardly homogeneous in
their tastes. So no institution can appeal to everyone. It should be
making sure that everyone knows what that institution has to offer, and
doing it in an appealing way.
        When I am in the field with my forge and tools, most walk on by taking
little note. Some will stand and watch as I make an item then leave. A
few will ask questions while they watch. But every once in a while
someone will ask if they can try. I have been known to take an hour or
more to help a 6 year old make a hook. But he and his family have
learned something. Will that child become a smith, no. Will he remember
that day for a long time, yes.
        Who was I there to serve? The masses who took little note of my
existance, or those I teach. Yes I sell my goods to those masses, but
my  teaching is for future generations.
        We may have to sort the chaf from the wheat, but lets not lose sight of
what we are here to do.
                                        Tw

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