[BCMA] To charge or not to charge?

Fri Aug 10 16:35:30 PDT 2018

Hi all,
I'll share a couple of experiences. At the Port Moody Station Museum we
were open all year by donation. We used to suggest $2 per person regardless
of age but that was 5 years ago. The thinking was that most people have $2
in their pocket which isn't hard to part with. In summers, we had a student
greeter at the door which helped encourage people to donate. We did the
calculations and if we had to pay a person to take admission and the other
administration that goes with it, we would have had to charge an admission
price higher than we felt was reasonable to keep our visitation numbers up.
Our donations were generally strong (I don't remember the per person
amount) and we were able to keep good visitation numbers which pleased our
funders. Jim, please correct me if I've misspoken on anything here!

At the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, we charge admission in line with Parks
Canada gazetted fees (highest individual fee $7.80). In 2015, we began to
include fees for additional interpretation in summer months and continued
to see increases in visitation with virtually no complaints. Like other
Parks Canada sites we were free for 2017. We saw huge increases in
visitation (I think around double the previous year but I'm not sure). Much
of this increase was from passersby who otherwise wouldn't have paid
because they didn't know what was offered, didn't have the time to spend,
or didn't speak English or French and thought they wouldn't get much from
the experience. From what I understand, there has been little to no
pushback since the site has returned to paid admission this year and
visitation is still strong. The verdict is still out as to whether the free
admission year will result in a long term increase in visitation. If any of
the Cannery folks have anything to add, please feel free!

I think there are a couple things to consider, 1) who is your audience and
what are their expectations and 2) what are your masters (governing bodies,
funders, etc) more concerned with - visitation or revenue. At the Cannery,
a significant portion of visitation was from tourists who were totally
amenable to admission fees. At the Port Moody Museum, visitors are mostly
locals who feel ownership of the site and expect it to be free.

Hope that helps. Good luck with the decision.
Cheers,
Rebecca

On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 5:54 PM, Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <
bcma at lists.vifa.ca> wrote:

> I meant to chime in on this last week, and it slipped my mind. Creston
> Museum is a small museum in a small community, and we charge admission in
> summer - $4 for adults, $3 youth, and $10 for a family (we’re pretty
> flexible on what constitutes a family). In winter, we switch to an
> admission by donation system, because it’s cold so visits tend to be
> shorter, and we almost always have part of it torn up while we change an
> exhibit or repaint a room or something.
>
>
>
> In summer, most people pay the admission without questions, though we
> occasionally get people who refuse to pay admission, or who walk in with no
> money in any form because they expect it will be free; and on days when we
> do go with admission by donation (event days, for example), our per person
> revenues drop to less than $2. On the other hand, we also get a lot of
> comments that “it’s worth much more than we charge,” but if we tried
> charging more, I know we would lose visitors. But in winter, we regularly
> get people handing us $20 donations and more. The difference is that in
> winter, people hand us the donation after they’ve visited and in summer,
> they’re asked for admission when they arrive. So, if we could figure out a
> way to show people how fantastic we are before they’ve seen it, we could
> probably go to an admission-by-donation format and considerably increase
> our admission revenues.
>
>
>
> Tammy
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> Tammy Bradford, Manager
>
> Creston Museum
>
> 219 Devon Street, Creston BC V0B 1G3
>
> 250-428-9262
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca <bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca> *On
> Behalf Of *Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 09, 2018 5:02 PM
> *To:* bcma at lists.vifa.ca
> *Subject:* Re: [BCMA] To charge or not to charge?
>
>
>
> Dear Museum Friends,
>
> Thank you for the generous response to this query around admissions
> policies.  Responses continue to trickle in, so let’s continue to share our
> experience.  Later on, I will do my best to summarize and report back with
> some takeaways from this critical conversation.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Linda
>
>
>
> [image: Linda Digby_email tags-small]
>
>
>
> *From:* bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca
> <bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca>] *On Behalf Of *Moderated BCMA subscriber
> listserv.
> *Sent:* August-01-18 3:21 PM
> *To:* bcma at lists.vifa.ca
> *Subject:* [BCMA] To charge or not to charge?
>
>
>
> Dear Friends,
>
>
>
> We operate three museums in downtown Kelowna, with admission by donation.
> Our admissions  policy is under review, and we would like to know what
> other museums have learned about admission policy.  What are museums of
> various size categories handling admission? Does charging admission, rather
> than asking for a donation, increase or decrease revenues?  How does it
> impact visitation?  What else has been learned?
>
>
>
> Here is our experience:  Kelowna Museums Society sees just under 40,000
> visitors a year at our three museums.  We have a long history of offering
> admission by donation.  Last year, we posted small signs on the donation
> boxes stating the suggested donation is $5 per person. This worked for us,
> and we noticed an increase in donation box revenues. Based on recent
> performance, our budget reflects anticipated donation box revenues from our
> three facilities of $34,000.  Our average donation per person is about half
> of our suggested donation, or around $2.50 (some of our visitors pay
> program fees that are not reflected in the donation box revenue line, so
> this average refers to casual drop-in visitors).
>
>
>
> The board would like to know if revenues would increase if we instituted
> an admission fee.  Alternatively, they wonder if it would be beneficial to
> make our suggested donation signage more prominent and detailed, with
> suggested donations for individuals,  families, seniors, students, etc.
>
>
>
> General comments may be shared with the entire listserv community.  Anyone
> who would like to engage in a more detailed exchange may contact me
> directly at:
>
> ldigby at kelownamuseums.ca, or 778-478-0346
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Linda
>
>
>
> [image: Linda Digby_email tags-small]
>
>
>
>
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