In a recent report, museum director Dr Ian Griffin said there were 366,642 visitors to the museum in the latest financial year, ending on June 30, up 21% (63,704) on the previous year.
In his report, to the Otago Museum Trust Board, Dr Griffin assured members that ``after issues with the previous year's numbers'', the latest visitor count had been ``very carefully checked''.
And in an interview he acknowledged the ``embarrassment'' of an incorrect estimate of visitor attendance for a previous museum year.
And it was ``great to see any increase in attendance'', given the more conservative approach to counting that had since been adopted.
The Perpetual Guardian Planetarium had been ``obviously a significant draw'', but attendance at the museum's Discovery World science centre and Tropical Forest had also been the ``highest'' for some years, with the latter attracting about 70,000 visits.
More visitors had been coming to the museum's Dunedin base, and museum team members had also been ``busy reaching out to communities across Otago''.
There had been a ``massive increase'' in the amount of outreach undertaken by museum staff in the past financial year.
These activities included his own talks to community groups and the ``much more inspirational efforts of the Lab in a Box team'', and the museum science team's displays in Oamaru.
The Otago Museum was working collaboratively with other popular cultural institutions, including the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
The museum planetarium and the Tropical Forest appealed not only to Dunedin and Otago people but were also important tourist attractions, he said.
Museum marketing and development director Caroline Cook said overseas tourists accounted for at least a quarter of overall visits to the museum, and a survey, in February, had indicated that 37% of visitors during the survey period were from abroad.
The museum was a ``critical part'' not only of Dunedin's cultural vibrancy, but also of the ``economic vibrancy of the city as well'', she said.
