Let the Data Dump Begin - Historic Sites and Their Audiences

A couple of weeks ago, I promised to start sharing a large amount of data on visitors to historic sites.  Well, it is time for that data dump to begin!

This winter, we fielded a national study of visitors to outdoor history museums.  For this study, thirteen outdoor history museums invited subscribers to their e-mail lists to participate in a short survey.  Over 5,000 completed the survey, giving us a really nice sample of core visitors to outdoor history museums.

We had some big questions to ask. First, who visits outdoor history museums?  Why do they choose to visit?  And what kind of experience are they looking for?  Is it more observation, or what I would call a "traditional museum experience," or are they looking to be immersed in the past?  And finally, authenticity.  Is it a buzzword, or is it "the whole point?"  (Though my earlier post on authenticity probably tells you what we found, though we will be sharing a lot more on this issue in the future.)

Who responded?

As you can see in the chart below, the largest slice of respondents, just over a quarter, we are calling "empty nesters."  These are adults in their 50s, who are probably no longer visiting the outdoor history museum with their children.  Instead, their children are in their teens to twenties, and most of these empty nesters are not yet grandparents.  The second largest slice, at just under a quarter, are moms.  These are moms in their 30s and 40s who visit with their children.  We were quite surprised by the heavy response rate of older men (those 60 or older), and that they outnumbered their female counterparts.  First of all, men are less likely to sign up for e-newsletter lists, secondly, they are less likely than women to take surveys, and thirdly, demographically speaking, there are just fewer of them than older women.  Nevertheless, a full 15% of our respondents were older men, and 13% older women.  Gen Ys, or adults under 30, made up 4% of respondents, a bit more than we anticipated, and other comprises everyone else who responded.

Why do they visit?

62% of respondents say they visit to immerse themselves in the past. But when we asked this question, respondents could choose more than one answer, and this particular answer was the only one that had over 50% of respondents.  Other responses were much more spread out, telling us that outdoor history museums attract a variety of visitors who visit for a variety of reasons.

There was more consensus on why outdoor history museums are important.  85% say it is because they preserve our past, 82% say  it is because they share the stories of everyday people, not just famous people, and 79% say it is because outdoor history museums are a great place to teach children about history.   But when we started picking through the written-in responses, we also found a compelling secondary reason, particularly among local respondents.  Open space.  Outdoor history museums are perceived as assets to their communities for the above reasons and because they provide open space for respite, walks, dog walks, and birding.  (Look for a future blog post to share more on this subject.)

So thus far we know that visitors come to outdoor history museums for a wide variety of reasons, though immersion in the past is a common theme.  We also know that these respondents value history and teaching it to children, and that local residents perceive outdoor history museums in slightly different ways than those who live further afield.  But we have only just started!

On Tuesday look for more, as I share why they join or give, how outdoor history museums excel in serving their audiences, and where they fall a bit short. 

Has this post whetted your appetite to learn more? We will be hosting a free Museum Conversation conference call on our research this Thursday, April 17, at 1:00 EDT / 10:00 PDT.  Space is limited, so RSVP to me soon at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.

Going to be in Denver for the AAM meeting? We will be sharing our research presentation in our suite on Monday, April 28 at 3:45 MDT.  Space is limited, so RSVP to me soon at susie (at) reachadvisors.com.

 

Have thoughts or questions about what I have shared above?  Feel free to click on "comments" below to post those thoughts or questions.   

Comments

[Robin Gabriel]

Susie - thanks for all the great info. It is interesting to see who is currently coming to our sites. I would also be interested to know how we can reach audiences who are not currently coming - i.e., how do we increase our attendance?
Thanks,
Robin

[Robin Gabriel]

Susie - as you can see, your posting got me thinking this morning. Thinking about my first comment, I am now wondering...based on your chart (and having limited resources) if we know who our visitors are, would museums be better off trying to increase our visitation by appealing to more of the same kind of visitors, or should we be trying to get folks from the other demographics, like gen y? Or... would this just create more problems in the future?
Robin

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Hi Robin - Great questions. Of course I think it is important for museums to understand why people choose not to visit and what, if anything, a museum can do to attract them. And I also think it is important to figure out what the perceived barriers of entry are to museums and strive to demolish them.

That being said, however, many, if not most, museums do not have the resources to field that research. But there is another choice, one that I think of as the ripple effect.

If museums work hard to truly understand the visitors that do come, and why they come, then they can work outwards from those visitors to build audiences. It takes figuring out common interests groups of visitors may have with groups of potential visitors.

For example, if you discover that a significant segment of your audience also enjoys hiking at the local land trust, then the visitor base for the local land trust becomes a great target audience that is far more likely to be open to visiting your museum than the public at large (and, in turn, your visitors are probably a great target audience for the land trust). Figuring out what else your audiences do in their leisure time is a great way of creating partnerships for cross-promotion and expanding your audience more cost-effectively.

So to answer your second question, those similar visitors, with similar interests, are going to be easier to attract than folks from other demographics that just may not be in the museum-going habit. That is not to say to ignore other potential audiences - ideally you are working with organizations and schools to attract diverse and new audiences too, but pragmatically, similar visitors are the low-lying fruit, and not all museums have the resources to go much beyond that.

Now let's step back and think about Gen Y for a minute. As I said in the last e-newsletter, in our recent research on Gen Y we discovered that fewer than a quarter of Gen Ys enjoy visiting museums. But when we look at what museums that 23% do enjoy visiting, history-based museums, like yours, are very competitive with other types of museums. So within that slice of Gen Y, the interest is there, the issues may have more to do with time, more competition for leisure time, and for some, money. And to some extent, it is also life stage, as children give some parents a reason to visit a museum. Gen Y, simply put, has not started having children in large numbers yet.

Long answers! We will be sharing more on Gen Y over the next few months as we dig further in that research we fielded.

[Diane Schreiner]

Hi Susie

would it be possible to get a copy of your reasearch report?

I've been following you're info dump as you called it and find it very interesting.