Beamish Museum feeling pinch as visitors drop

Jan 2 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

ONE of the North East’s major museums is beginning to feel the pinch from the economic slump.

Visitor numbers at Beamish Museum in County Durham of 272,923 for the year to date are down by 6% from the previous year.

Revenue of £2,532,228 also shows a drop of 9.8%.

Museum director Richard Evans says: “Early signs of the impact of the economic slowdown include a reduction in sales of family tickets and some evidence of lower secondary spend on meals and gifts in the autumn period.”

Other factors include very poor weather last summer and no Easter falling in the financial year 2008-09.

The results for the year to date mean that the museum is unlikely to achieve its visitor and revenue targets for the financial year ending on March 31.

Head of commercial operations Darren Jensen also said that suppliers were increasing prices from 5% to up to 50% for some products from the Far East.

But the museum is set for a financial boost from the planned winding up of the Locomotion Trust.

The trust has agreed to transfer £25,000 to the museum and to donate the Locomotion engine which operates on the site.

The museum’s latest attraction, a £1m miners’ lamp cabin, is also due to open on March 21.

It is hoped that this will be marked by a march of Durham miners carrying lamps and banners to the cabin. Improvements to the museum’s entrance building are also proposed, with a biomass boiler under consideration to provide heating.

Plans for the new season also include using Beamish to showcase North East local food products and a meeting has been set with Northumbrian Larder to discuss the plans.

The busiest day of last season, October 29, saw 3,543 visitors.

This included 681 pupils from Sunderland schools who were rewarded with a visit to Beamish for not having missed a day at school in the academic year.