Hopes for even higher patronage

The ongoing redevelopment of facilities, introduction of new exhibits and experiences, and a personal relationship with its visitors are just some of the factors which make the Otago Museum one of the best in the world, Otago Museum director Shimrath Paul says.

While most museums would be ‘‘very happy'' attracting 20 per cent of their local population through their doors, the Otago Museum enjoyed a huge patronage from its local community, Mr Paul said.

‘‘Our visitor numbers have gone from about 100,000 people a year to more than 600,000 people a year in a 10-year period,'' he said.

‘‘That's because we put a lot of effort into making sure we provide excellence in service to our community, which is all of Otago. We're not selling a product, we're selling an experience.''

Mr Paul said within the past 10 years Otago Museum had gone from hosting one or two changing exhibitions a year, to about 20 changing exhibitions a year - something no other museum in Australasia did.

‘‘The Otago Museum sits very high among museums in the world, indeed.

On terms of per capita visitation we are certainly the best in New Zealand, in all of Australasia in fact, and maybe even the world.

‘‘We have become very much a grass roots organisation which is all about local engagement and providing programmes which focus on our local community, that's why the relative demographic of our visitation is quite different from most other museums.''

Where most visitors to other museums were usually from outside the local community, surveys showed about 70 to 75 per cent of Otago Museum visitors came from within Dunedin and Otago, Mr Paul said.

Despite such a high number of visitors from within Dunedin and Otago, Museum surveys showed there were still segments of the community which the museum was not engaging, Mr Paul said.

‘‘We want to engage those segments and hopefully the passport will be a way we can do that - we've already seen a surprising number of people take advantage of the passport's offers.

‘‘The museum is just one of the great assets that belong to the people of Dunedin and Otago, and we'd like to see more people feel inclined to see those assets.''

Mr Paul said one of the museum's major draws this year was the Tropical Forest and Butterfly house.

‘‘The Tropical Forest has been such a success that although we initially said it would be here for three years, we will now re-assess that and possibly continue with it longer.

‘‘It is a huge drawcard for people and we regularly get visitors from the North Island, Australia, and other places who have come to Dunedin and Otago just to see it - one lady told us she has visited the butterfly house 16 times.''

Mr Paul said the museum was one of the ways the people of Otago could promote their community and create a greater national awareness of Dunedin.