Thu, 14 Apr 2011
Canterbury Museums, extortion in progress
As the great funding cuts from on high trickle down, the various divisions of local government start looking for areas where they can tighten their spending, or raise new revenue. Canterbury City Council is far from unique in the UK by trying to find ways to cut costs & increase revenue. But it seems, that someone at the Council really hasn't quite thought about what they are doing with their budget figures, perhaps staring more at excel than looking out the window at the real world.
Now before I got into too much detail, I will apologise for the unashamed localisation of this topic, if you are not living in Canterbury, or planning on Visiting Canterbury, you may want to scroll down and have a read of past articles, or maybe go outside and have a nice walk. But for those of you who stick around, a quick recap. Canterbury thrives on tourism, in 2009 alone, 6,372,000 people made a day trip to Canterbury, contributing £225,991,000 of the local economy and accounting for 8,189 jobs. (Numbers courtesy of Canterbury City Council: "The Economic Impact of Tourism on the City of Canterbury 2009"). Pretty impressive when you consider that Canterbury has a population of just 43432[1].
So, what are all these tourists doing in Canterbury? Well the obvious answer is visiting the Cathedral. Canterbury Cathedral being one of the most famous in Britain, and by far the most popular attraction in the city. But, having spent your £9 entry to the Cathedral [2] and enjoyed a morning wandering round admiring the magnificent venue, what else is their to do in Canterbury? Well you could spend £7 on a trip along the river[3]. Or perhaps a trip to the City Museums is up your street...
And this is where we get to the point of this article. Until very recently, you could trundle out of the Cathedral, and make the short walk just across the street into the cool surrounds of the Canterbury Roman Museum, part with £3.10, and spend a lovely hour or so admiring some very nice exhibits on the roman history upon which Canterbury is built, all for the same price as a Large Cappuccino with cream at Starbucks (£2.75 + 35p for the cream). But that was then. Now, due to the wonderful creative types at Canterbury City council, they want to up that price to £6. No, that is not a typo, SIX pounds, for the Roman museum, a 93.5% increase. But the story is even worse over at the Museum of Canterbury with Rupert Bear Museum where prices have just gone up 113% from £3.75 to £8.
Now in fairness to Canterbury City Council, as part of this increase in prices, the adult ticket now also includes 1 accompanying child, Something which the £3.10 above didn't. But for those who don't have children in tow, that is no consolation. So what is the thinking from Canterbury City Council on this one? Do they have some unpublished research that adults without children account for such a small percentage of visitors to Canterbury to be statistically insignificiant? Or, have they fallen into the trap whereby they see tourists as walking sacks of money waiting to be mugged?
Listening to various councillors at the recent Canterbury Area Members Panel, it was clear that the general thinking was that people happily spent £7.50 for a river tour, so surely they would be willing to spend £8 on a museum. But I am not entirely sure I agree with their thinking. Having visited both museums to see what they are like, I can honestly say that I would not be willing to spend that much to visit them. Especially if I had already spent £9 to visit the Cathedral. A quick straw poll amongst some friends (demographic all late 20's degree educated types), the general response was "it was a nice little museum … 8 quid just strikes me as a little bit too steep".
If a visitor to Canterbury went to the Cathedral, and both museums listed above, it would cost them £23. When you consider that most large London museums offer free entry, as does the soon to be opened Turner Contemporary in Margate, you have to ask yourself, what is going to make someone come to Canterbury for a day trip ? If they do come, what is going to make them stay longer than the Cathedral visit, thus keep them spending money in the local economy, and supporting jobs? I find myself asking, has Canterbury City Council opted for the easy way out, hoping higher prices will result in higher revenue? or should they perhaps reconsider their marketing options? Why not £8 for entry to both museums, with a 10% voucher for some local eateries or £15 including Cathedral entry? Why no 10% off if you came by train? Why is there no Roman Legionaire marching up and down the highstreet on a Saturday drumming up custom?
Canterbury is just 58 minutes from London by train, and would make a fantastic day out for many in the city, but, has naivity on the side of Canterbury City Council killed this off before it's even had a chance to show promise by simply pricing itself out of the market? Only time will tell, in the mean time, I look foward to visiting the Turner Contemporary, and enjoying Fish 'n' Chips on the sea front...
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