24 Hour Museum Gets People Into Museums

The 24 Hour Museum – Britain's National Virtual Museum
www.24hourmuseum.org.uk
editor@24hourmuseum.org.uk
PO Box 3470
Brighton
BN1 1DA

11/08/2003 - Press Release - for immediate use

The 24 Hour Museum website gets people into the UK's cultural institutions... and that's official.

Following a pop-up survey of 24 HM readers, we can reveal that 85% of respondents felt the 24 Hour Museum made them more likely to visit a museum, gallery or heritage attraction.

Throughout April this year, visitors to the 24 Hour Museum website were invited to fill out an online questionnaire aimed at finding out who is using the site and what they think about it.

The response was emphatic with over 1000 people replying in just four weeks.

The results show that while the site has a wide-ranging appeal it is also reaching beyond the traditional museum audience, with over a third of respondents aged between 16 and 35. The launch of our redesigned children's site www.show.me.uk in September will help us show off the great content of UK museums to an even younger audience.

Aided by the exciting and imaginative exhibition programmes of UK museums and galleries, the 24 Hour Museum works hard to make the site a good read with fresh, easy to use content. This approach has paid off with 94.2% of respondents saying they would recommend the site to a friend.

While a lot of our visitors come to us looking for something in particular, we are also building a loyal base of readers (97.9% of respondents say they will visit regularly) who use the site alongside the BBC online or Guardian Unlimited, as a regular port of call.

24 Hour Museum Director, Jane Finnis said: “We are very excited by the response to the survey.”

“The 24 Hour Museum is all about providing a fresh, interesting and useful online guide to the fantastic museums, galleries and heritage attractions in this country. The survey results are proof that we are achieving this and that the development of the site is reaching out to people in the right way.”

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell said: “Anyone who has visited the 24 Hour Museum website would know why it has been so influential in encouraging people to visit UK museums and galleries. Combined with our free admission policy for visitors to our sponsored museums and galleries, plus the new investment we are making in our major regional museums, there has never been a better time for people to enjoy our national treasures.”

“The survey results are proof that UK museums and galleries reach a wide range of audiences and that the 24 Hour Museum helps them do it.”

The site currently attracts over 100,000 visitor sessions per month, each one spending an average of ten minutes reading our daily news and exhibition stories, extended trails or searching through our huge database of institutions.

Site Editor Jon Pratty said: “The reader survey has really helped us get to know our audience. Not only does it prove that we are already achieving what we set out to do, but it is a useful way to find out what our readers want and how we can keep on improving the site.”

For further information contact the 24 Hour Museum: editor@24hourmuseum.org.uk.

Notes to editors:

The 24 HM Pop-up reader survey was conducted throughout the month of April, 2003.

The 24 HM database contains information about over 2800 UK museums, galleries and heritage sites.

24 HM is funded by the DCMS – the Department for Culture, Media and Sport - through Resource – the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries.

The site was set up in 1999 by the Campaign for Museums, Loyd Grossman OBE and mda – Museums Documentation Association.

Every month the site attracts around 100,000 visitor sessions and approximately 200,000 + page impressions.

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