Colin Philpott: Behind the scenes at the museum... there's real value

IN March, I was talking to a visitor to the Widescreen Weekend which takes place at the National Media Museum as part of the Bradford International Film Festival each year.

The weekend provides an opportunity to see films on one of very few screens in the world capable of showing the original widescreen technology from the 1950s. This visitor had travelled to this unique event not from Leeds or even from London but from the west coast of the United States. It's an example of the power of cultural venues in general, and museums in particular, to attract visitors from all over the world.

Increasingly, museums here in Yorkshire are seeing themselves as part of the visitor economy, both for visitors from within the region but also for visitors from beyond the broad acres.

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There are roughly 150 museums in Yorkshire ranging from the very large to the very small. These include five national museums (the National Railway Museum, the Royal Armouries, the National Coal Mining Museum for England, the National Media Museum and Eureka!), a host of great local museums and galleries run by local authorities or trusts as well as a swathe of independent museums often run largely by volunteers and local communities.

Of course, the primary purpose of museums is to preserve and make accessible the objects and artefacts which constitute our heritage.

Museums have long seen themselves as educational institutions (in the widest sense) providing learning opportunities (both formal and informal) for visitors (and increasingly for virtual visitors through the web). However, over and above this, the contribution museums can make economically is starting to be more widely recognised, developed and supported.

In total, an estimated five to six million people visit Yorkshire museums each year and that generates a significant amount of economic activity. People spend money to get there. Even where museums are free to enter, visitors spend money on food and in shops inside and nearby those museums. As an example, my own museum, the National Media Museum, carried out an economic impact survey a couple of years ago which demonstrated that the museum – attracting between 600,000 and 700,000 visitors a year – creates almost 30m of "additional tourism spending" in Bradford – roughly 50 of spending per visitor. That is money that would not otherwise be spent in the city had it not been for the museum. Given that the museum costs between 4m and 5m a year to run, we reckon that 30m represents a pretty good return on investment.

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During the past year, the Yorkshire Museum Directors Conference as been pulling together the evidence of the contribution museums and galleries can make to the visitor economy. An independent report demonstrated some fairly telling facts including:

n Museums are the second most enjoyable part of tourists' visit to Yorkshire – beaten only by the scenery.

n More people visit museums than any other type of visitor attraction in Yorkshire.

n Visits to museums and galleries in Yorkshire overall are on the increase and are increasing faster than elsewhere in the country.

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n Museums and galleries in Yorkshire consistently score higher satisfaction ratings from visitors than other parts of the visitor offer.

n Visitors to museums and galleries, and other cultural attractions, tend to be higher spenders than visitors to other attractions.

Of course, maintaining this in the years ahead is going to be challenging with virtually all museums facing severe cuts in funding, including the National Railway Museum this week, as a result of the public spending squeeze.

Indeed, we can't rule out closures of some museums and shiny new developments like the Yorkshire Museum, reopening in York on Yorkshire Day, will be few and far between.

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However, it's heartening to see that the region's tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire is increasingly recognising the value of culture – including museums – in their drive to grow the tourist economy.

Two examples from the jewel in Yorkshire's coast – Scarborough – illustrate the opportunities. Last Friday, I was at the grand reopening concert of the Scarborough Open Air Theatre with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jos Carreras doing their stuff on a warm summer's evening in front of 6,000 people filling the refurbished terracing.

But round the corner, also in Scarborough, there's another example of how a multitude of smaller gestures can add up to something

significant.

Last month, the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough staged a Fossil Festival with London's Natural History Museum and put on 18 events across a weekend. Visitor numbers rocketed four-fold and the museum experienced its busiest period since its reopening in 2008.

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So, there are examples – large and small – of the part museums are playing in delivering growth in tourism across Yorkshire at a time when the region's economy needs every additional tourism pound it can generate.

Colin Philpott is director of the National Media Museum in Bradford and a founding member of the Yorkshire Museum Directors Conference.