Dunedin Study exhibition boosts museum numbers

An exhibition devoted to the University of Otago's Dunedin Study has helped boost Toitu Otago Settlers Museum attendance to a annual record 309,491 visits.

''It's fantastic, we've been really successful,'' museum director Jennifer Evans said, of the museum's attendance in the financial year ending last month.

The Slice of Life exhibition attracted 227,510 visits during an extended 14-month run, from March last year until May this year, Ms Evans said.

In 1975 Otago University health researchers began studying a group of 1037 children born in Dunedin three years earlier, but the planned short-term study continued when it proved very useful.

The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study has since become internationally respected as one of the most significant long-term health and development projects conducted.

The exhibition had combined with a strong cruise ship visitor season to help continue the museum's visitor growth, she said.

Being ranked Dunedin's top visitor attraction on TripAdvisor had also proved positive for the museum.

The museum's highest attendance before it closed for its $37.5million redevelopment in 2010 had been 68,892 in 2006-07.

But when the museum reopened in December 2012 after the redevelopment, its initial 180,000 annual target was swiftly exceeded, 219,907 visits having been made by June 2013.

Attendance rose steadily, reaching the previous record, 308,553, in 2014-15, and 303,951 visits were made in 2015-16.

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