Is event attendance declining? Your observations?

Anyone care to share their observations about the attendance levels they are seeing at monthly and annual events? So far this spring it looks to me like attendance is off about 15 to 20 percent at the meetings of the groups I usually attend. If that continues it is going to be a very sparse year for the museums and the tourist lines.

MX

mxdata wrote:Anyone care to share their observations about the attendance levels they are seeing at monthly and annual events? So far this spring it looks to me like attendance is off about 15 to 20 percent at the meetings of the groups I usually attend. If that continues it is going to be a very sparse year for the museums and the tourist lines.

MX

With gas getting close to $4/gallon, groceries prices through the roof, and not to mention unemployment rising, this is going to be a tough year for everybody.

JP

BSRA attendance has been quite good lately. Entertainment quality and location are significant factors.

It's at least theoretically possible that people will choose to attend more local events in place of the "long trip" vacation.

But I agree that there will be challenges for some time to come. I can't be more specific since I've stopped attending events.

I also have seen news recently that the rate of inflation, including the effect of higher fuel prices, is running over 6%. If that continues to be the case everyone is going to be faced with the effects of decreased purchasing power, while all the shortlines and tourist operations are going to be dealing with much higher costs of supplies. Definitely not good news for the tourist railroad industry. They may have to work a lot harder at putting together special events as an incentive to get people to come out and attend.

Like any other liesure activity... if it's something you really want to do, you'll put aside time and save up for the costs. Yeah, $4 gas is gonna kill us (I'm already making fewer trips), but it won't wipe us out. We just need to make our activities more enticing!

-otto-

Well maybe there is an "up" side to this then Otto, because planning and promotion of events in the hobby and the industry have ranged all the way from bad to terrible in many cases in the past. It would be nice if some of the industry organizations like ARM and TRAIN put in a concentrated effort to improve the planning and promotion of events among their members. All too often the only people who get the word about these events are the railfans, and taken as a group they are sometimes notoriously unwilling to spend money!

Since MXdata's first comment centered on club activities and meetings, I am happy to report that the monthly meetings of the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley chapter, NRHS has been bringing in steady numbers of attendees. We average 45 per meeting, but with the nice weather for April, we packed the house with 68 people. They meet the 2nd Thursday of each month (except July) at the Petro truck stop in Dupont, PA. This is right off the Interstate, so it's not difficult for anyone to get to.

As far as museums, April is not a busy month, so it's a bit early to tell. However, with less people driving just for fun, it is taking less time to get to your destination when you decide to go.

I attended a meeting at Amherst Railway Society (Mass.) recently and they had a good turnout, but several other groups the last month or two the attendance looked really slim. Of course it is difficult to separate out the potential effect of gas prices from the results of indifference when you are looking at some of these groups. In a couple cases the organizations did not get the word out about their programs until the last two or three days before the meeting. That definitely does not help attendance.

MX

mxdata wrote:Anyone care to share their observations about the attendance levels they are seeing at monthly and annual events? So far this spring it looks to me like attendance is off about 15 to 20 percent at the meetings of the groups I usually attend. If that continues it is going to be a very sparse year for the museums and the tourist lines.

MX

I think the better question might be why did it ONLY decline 15 or 20 percent. With gas prices so high and the ability to look at pics and video's on the internet for free why would you spend so much time and money going to events regardless of what your hobby is?

In my case, I go to some of them to visit with friends, and to others because there is a program being shown that has information not posted on the internet, that is worth the time and effort to see. But I also go because I am in the area on business and the gasoline has already been paid for.

MX

Another point that might be made is that a meeting, even a dull one, is a cheap night out. People who attend have complained about the price of gas since it went up from 29 cents to 33 cents. It's just something we do.

They might also feel like they are getting involved in local preservation, even if all they do is sit down and listen to the meeting, like some folks at your local council meetings. Preservation takes many forms. One that is overlooked is just appreciation for another person's work, research and presentation. It is easy to dismiss those who don't do more. However, it isn't up to you and me to spend someone else's time.

I figured I would bump this thread to see how we are doing now that the summer season is in full swing. Are your numbers up? Sure the price of gas is high, and people are thinking more about how to spend their remaining dollars, but is your rail museum / ride/ attraction worth their time? Do they see you as a bargain?

Has the weak dollar brought foreigners to your railroad? At the NRHS convention in Fort Worth, TX, 18 Australians attended. They couldn't afford a trip to America before, but jumped at the chance to see "the old west" when the comparative price worked in their favor. Perhaps this is repeated elsewhere. With a strong Euro, maybe more Germans and Russians are travelling to the U.S. for the first time.

Attendance at Pine Creek at Allaire is more or less "normal" right now. The best year we ever had was 1973, in the midst of that year's fuel crisis. People stayed closer to home, and the folks from NYC and North Jersey made shorter trips from home, which turned out to be very fortunate for us. We're convenient to a lot of beach-related activities, and a non-beach day can be a good day for us, along with the adjacent very popular Allaire State Park.

www.njmt.org
www.allairevillage.org
www.infoage.org

I was at Railroad Museum of New England (RMNE) a few weeks back, and their attendance seemed to be excellent. The train had a lot of passengers and New Haven 529 (a beautiful locomotive, the last surviving New Haven ALCO RS3) was the star of the show and getting lots of attention from the visitors.

On the other hand I also went to a few NRHS chapter meetings recently and it looked like they were down 25% to 40% from the attendance on previous visits.

MX