Museum director Dr Ian Griffin said the museum had enjoyed an ‘‘excellent summer'' and a ‘‘great start'' to the new year.
Dr Griffin was commenting in a report tabled at the Otago Museum Trust Board's latest meeting yesterday showing the museum's Perpetual Guardian Planetarium had welcomed its 10,000th visitor on January 30.
By the end of the month, there had been 10,418 visitors, the museum said yesterday.
‘‘That may not seem that great, but with 51 seats, it is pretty [impressive],'' Dr Griffin said at the meeting yesterday.
In his report, Dr Griffin said the planetarium had been met with ‘‘great success, with most shows nearly at full capacity''.
The planetarium had been open for eight weeks at that point, which meant it had an average of about 30 people (60% of the planetarium's capacity) at each of the six daily shows.
But Dr Griffin said taking an average for the number of audience members might be misleading, because certain shows were more popular than others.
The ‘‘Amazing Universe'' show had been the most popular so far, he said, with 75%-85% (38-43 seats) of the planetarium full on average, while the ‘‘Sky Tonight'' show averaged more like 65% attendance (33 seats).
‘‘Marama-A-Whetu'' was the least popular thus far, but that might change, Dr Griffin said.
‘‘It's such a new thing, we're still figuring out what times are best and that sort of thing.''
Response to the planetarium from visitors had been ‘‘all very positive'', Dr Griffin said yesterday. There had been no negative feedback.
Public response to the three in-house produced planetarium shows had been positive.
The Beautiful Science Gallery had also proved popular, becoming ‘‘an important part'' of any visit to the museum, Dr Griffin said.
The museum's Discovery World science centre and the Tropical Forest within the centre had this year recorded their highest monthly attendance since 2009.
A museum report said the high attendance at Discovery World and the Tropical Forest partly reflected the ‘‘success of the planetarium in bringing in a new audience''.
Another key factor was the popularity of new combination tickets, allowing entry to Discovery World and the Tropical Forest, as well as to the planetarium.
The Tropical Forest is home to hundreds of brightly-coloured tropical butterflies.
Museum marketing and development director Caroline Cook said it was expected the planetarium would be popular. Initial projections had been somewhat conservative and attendance had exceeded expectations.
The planetarium and the Beautiful Science Gallery had proved appealing for Dunedin and Otago visitors, and were also significant new tourist attractions for Dunedin, she said.
Museum staff said income at the museum's shop and its cafe were also ‘‘considerably up'' on the corresponding period the previous year.
December had proved a ‘‘great trading month'' at the museum. The planetarium had led the way and there were strong increases in sales at the museum cafe, shop and tropical forest.
Museum visitor numbers for December were also good, with daily attendance numbers peaking at 2207 on December 30.
During that month, attendance topped 1000 visitors on 18 days, compared with on two days in the previous period. - Additional reporting Carla Green
