Rising attendance is child’s play

A snapshot survey of museums, galleries and science centres across England has revealed that most recorded a respectable increase in visitor numbers during the February half-term school holiday, compared with the corresponding period last year. A few, such as the Imperial War Museum, Imperial War Museum North and Horniman Museum returned record figures.

Speculation abounds as to what extent the economic downturn is responsible, as museums, especially free ones, have that special ingredient to attract those who are feeling the squeeze.

It is, perhaps, too early to find a solid explanation for the increase. At the Imperial War Museum (IWM), a spokeswoman was keen not to attribute the rise solely to the economic downturn.

Instead, she emphasised its public programmes, particularly the James Bond exhibition For Your Eyes Only, which closed on 1 March. Though the IWM is free, the charging Bond exhibition, with help from a major advertising campaign, boosted overall attendance.

Charging museums, mainly in the regions, seemed to do as well as the free ones. Some of the regional charging museums make an extra effort in the school holidays with increased marketing, special offers and family tickets.

The Horniman Museum recorded its two busiest days ever during the February 2009 half-term, with 3,519 and 3,417 visitors respectively. Although a spokeswoman for the museum acknowledges that the financial climate might have played a role, she stressed the quality of its package of half-term activities. The Natural History Museum also enjoyed its busiest single day for a February half-term since 2004.

But it was the Beamish open-air museum in County Durham that stole the headlines. A spokeswoman was realistic enough to be cautious about its 238 per cent increase on last year. She said the centenary of a colliery disaster fell on the first day of the half-term week.

With a colliery village on Beamish's site, the museum ran events around it. The spokeswoman added that a local media push coupled with special offers and mild weather had also contributed to the rise.

The bare figures can be misleading, though. The British Museum topped the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions' (ALVA) list of Britain's most-visited museums, galleries and heritage sites last year.

But this year's half-term figures were 15 per cent down on 2008. This anomaly is explained by the successful First Emperor exhibition running throughout last year's February half-term holiday.

Many believe that a combination of more people holidaying at home this year and the weak pound attracting more overseas tourists should give museum and gallery visitor figures a further boost.

But the National Museums Directors' Conference (NMDC) is worried Britain is falling behind Paris, Tokyo, Washington and New York as a cultural tourism venue. The NMDC believes more needs to be done to attract visitors from emerging economies such as China and India, and urges "leadership from the top and the inclusion of museums in the development of tourism policy".

The NMDC's comments will feed into a government- commissioned review of tourism policy from Visit Britain, which was due to be published at the end of March.

The rise in visitors might be down to a fortuitous convergence of visitors seeking good-value cultural experiences and museums and galleries employing good programming and marketing.

But with increasing financial constraints - the decrease in lottery funding, possible cuts to government spending on the arts, and local authority cuts - a compromise on the quality of programming, could have a knock-on effect on visitor numbers.