Since going to free admission in May, the Burnaby Village Museum has seen attendance increases of 749 per cent for the first two months.
But those numbers only tell half the story, as forgone revenues from paid admission are between $350,000 and $400,000 annually.
Dave Ellenwood, the city's director of parks, recreation and cultural services, told the Burnaby NOW on Wednesday afternoon that while he's pleased with the huge attendance increases, the loss in admission revenues won't be made up in increases in food services, gift shop sales and museum donations.
"No, we don't make it up," Ellenwood said. "The (difference) will be funded from an operating surplus."
Ellenwood said city council challenged the parks, recreation and cultural services department earlier this year to increase attendance numbers at the museum, with the goal of turning the museum into a Lower Mainland attraction.
In addition, the 40th anniversary of the museum was a cause for celebration.
"We're encouraged by the attendance numbers we have gotten so far. We hadn't anticipated it would be this big, but now we have to build on it," said Ellenwood.
The figures Ellenwood refers to include an overall attendance of 29,916 in May and June, a 749 per cent increase from the same two months in 2010, when only 3,994 people went through the museum.
Also on the positive side of the ledger, the food services department reported a 213 per cent increase in the first two months, with almost $50,000 in sales, as compared to only $23,460 in 2010. Museum donations are up 127 per cent and gift shop sales are up 131 per cent.
While admission to the museum is free, there is still a nominal charge to ride the historic carousel.
Ellenwood did say these huge increases won't be repeated in the next couple of months.
"You get huge increases because you start at a low number," he said.
Ellenwood said 2010 figures show the museum generated approximately $320,000 in paid admissions, with another $40,000 in admission fees for groups such as schools. That's money that's not hitting department coffers as the museum tries to increase attendance levels.
"We also spent about $40,000 more in marketing," said Ellenwood. "We put out a very effective promotional campaign to tell the public we were going free. ... I don't anticipate we'll have that (marketing) money next year, so we need to have word-of-mouth as a dominant way of getting our message out."
Ellenwood said some of the new features and attractions that have been looked at include a mini-golf putting course, which won't go ahead this year, and the Royal Bank looking at the former branch that used to be on site and whether that can be resurrected in some form for the future. A real bakery and a general store are also ideas that have been thrown around.
"There's potential for a lot of things here," he said. "Our challenge now is to progressively try to build up the attractions here and keep people coming back."
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