Eureka! bucks national trend in declining visitors

As the Department of Culture, Media and Sport announced a decline of over two million museum visitors for the past year, Eureka! has revealed their numbers have steadily risen and are holding fast at 289,000.

Eureka! Chief Executive Leigh-Anne Stradeski thinks there are a few key reasons for this.

“Firstly, we continually adapt our content to ensure we are providing rich learning experiences for our visitors which help children think creatively to face ever changing current and future challenges,” she said.

“We’ve also had to think creatively about pricing, and since introducing our annual pass system in 2010, whereby families can return as many times as they’d like for twelve months, we’ve seen our visitor numbers increase by 14 per cent.”

The Government report found there was also a six per cent fall in schoolchildren visiting museums and attractions, largely attributed to the increasing challenges schools face including time restrictions and funding, rising transport costs and security fears.

This is not the case for Eureka! where school visits increased by size per cent in 2016, accounting for around 12 per cent of overall visitor numbers.

This year Eureka! celebrates its 25th birthday and a quarter century of learning through play.

“Museums have to challenge themselves to stay relevant and that’s why we’re investing in Eureka! in 2017 with a brand new flexible gallery space.

“This will initially host an international digital arts touring exhibition, a first for us, showing that 25 years since opening we are still as relevant to our audience as ever.”