Museums also generate a good deal of revenue for the local government. But museums have to keep abreast with the times. Failure to do so will result in them becoming boring as they are facing tremendous competition from the newly built adventure parks and other theme parks. Further the smaller museums are generally privately managed. Though they may get a grant they have to run themselves through effective management of ticket and other item sales.



Thus museums need to update themselves appear attractive to the masses if they want to survive. One such museum facing a downward trend in visitors was the Cambridge & County Folk Museum. In order too counter this it decided to undergo some major developments and renovations and conducted various studies and investigations to help them in this matter. It surveyed people with regards to the facilities they would like to be provided with, the things that interest them, the attitude of the museum staff and other related information. This was done with a view to improve the service and facilities and increase the appeal of the museum. This study could certainly benefit other museums faced with a similar predicament and in a similar position.

Some of the striking realizations of the study were as follows:

People would prefer museums, especially those that are large and take a day to complete, to equip themselves with a cafeteria or an eating place. Visitors suggested rebuilding or modifying certain dangerous structures like staircases or galleries, provided it did not damage the original structure. One of the biggest requirements was the need for resources providing sufficient information and content on the items displayed. Overall, the public was pretty satisfied with the general quality and content of the matter on display and found no serious faults here. Probably the single most important reason for the fall in popularity was the competition it was facing from the recently constructed amusement parks. Also the newly developed and sprawling shopping malls ate into a lot of the sightseeing time and restricted the visitors from enjoying the museum in its entire splendor. One way to combat this would be to prepare exciting and colorful brochures that would catch the eye of the younger generation and make the museum appear to be a cool place to visit.