Much of the Otago Settlers Museum has become a building site during the museum redevelopment, but this disruption has not yet dented the museum's overall popularity, visitor figures suggest.
Figures tabled at a settlers museum board meeting yesterday showed there had been 59,385 visits to the museum between July 1 last year and May 16 this year, down slightly on 60,339 for the comparable period in 2008-09.
Nearly 28,000 of the latest visits were linked to specific museum activities, and in four of the five visitor activity categories, numbers were down, including by 24% (to 4766) for people participating in learning experiences outside the classroom; by 33% (to 1453) for external functions held at the museum; and by 39% (to 525) for settlers museum functions.
However, these falls were largely offset by a 35% rise (to 14,907) in the number of visitors to the museum's popular Pixie Town attraction late last year.
The museum's $35 million redevelopment has moved to its second stage, focusing on the former bus station, which, together with the former main reception area, is closed to the public.
The remaining museum displays are at the museum's original Burnside building.
Museum director Linda Wigley was pleased numbers had been little affected by the economic downturn and by disruption caused by the redevelopment.
Visitor numbers could fall as the disruption continued, but the museum was working to offset this through an educational outreach programme involving other sites, such as the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, as well as a series of other activities, including some eventual behind-the-scenes tours of the redevelopment work, she said in an interview.
Board member John Bezett yesterday praised the way the museum had been run over the past two years.
It had continued to perform successfully despite potential difficulties posed by the redevelopment work.
