About a month ago, Colleen Dilenschneider and the folks at IMPACTS Experience made some suggestions for facilitating holiday season experiences based on trends they were seeing in survey data.
One of of the big things they noticed was that people are traveling much more than in the past, but attendance at cultural organization had been dropping during 2025.
The reasons for this is that while they were traveling more people were spending a shorter period of time away from home. Because so many people making attendance arrangements once they are in town rather than in advance, that represents a smaller window of opportunity.
Another reason is because people are traveling for the purpose of spending time with family and friends rather than spending time at a destination so the orientation is on being with others rather than seeing sites.
Given that visiting friends and family is the primary decision-making factor for travel this upcoming holiday season – rather than taking part in a specific activity – it will be critical for cultural entities to keep their eye on the ball when it comes to reminding folks of our power to create meaningful moments between loved ones.
As readers might imagine, budgetary considerations also factor in to attendance plans at cultural organizations. Tangentially related to this, last week I noticed our bar revenue was down quite a bit over last year. Attendance at our events and those of renters has generally been within expectations over the last year, but apparently people were scaling back their spending in our bar and concessions.
There were a number of pieces of advice they offered for the holiday season and beyond. Among them were to lean into the traditional activities people engage in with family and friends around the holidays- Nutcracker performances, tree lighting, sing-a-long caroling, etc.
They also suggested looking at re-packaging and re-pricing experiences in order to position them as values. (my emphasis)
Introducing bundles of special experiences, highlighting membership loyalty tiers, and underscoring strategic, time-sensitive programs … To be clear, this is different than a discounting strategy! .. simply offering a discount ignores the fact that admission prices are rarely the primary cost-related obstacle for those interested in visiting a cultural organization. Instead, these cost and price-related strategies can help emphasize an emotional ROI – wonder per dollar, connection per hour.
Another form of re-packing mentioned is condensing an experience for people who are short on time. It may take the form of a shortened tour that will hit the exciting highlights of a gallery or garden and end with a holiday themed snack or interaction. In some cases it may just be advertising an existing experience as specially designed for time pressed groups/families with fussy kids.
One of our annual renters does something long these lines. In early December, they do a full performance of The Nutcracker at a venue about 15 miles away. Then in the week before Christmas, they do a 45 minute version focused on the “sugar plum” elements of the show at my venue sometimes cranking out 2-3 performances a day for some pretty good sized audiences.
Related to goal of saving visitors’ time was the suggestion of digital tools to support and facilitate the visit. For example, for admission, information delivery, wayfinding, parking, etc. It isn’t just a matter of having these tools. Communicating that these tools exist and are available to ease a guest’s experience can aid in the decision to attend an event.
