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Museum Marketing Tips Advanced Search |
Step Up Your Group Tours
By Stepping On
by Katherine Khalife
For history museums located in communities off tourism's beaten path, attracting group tours can often be a challenge. During my 20 years of operating heritage cultural tours, there were a number of museums and historic houses I would have loved to include on tour itineraries, but couldn't.The reasons? They either weren't large enough or well known enough to be marketable as day trip destinations on their own, or I couldn't find complementary services such as local sightseeing to make them so. And trying to get around that by including them as stops on overnight tours headed to other destinations usually didn't work either. The museum visit itself wouldn't take up enough of a morning or an afternoon not to leave timing gaps I couldn't fill.
I was therefore always pleased -- and often relieved -- when I found one of these museums that was willing to provide not only a museum tour, but also a step-on guide to board our vehicle for narrated sightseeing of the town's historic district or countryside. Often this addition alone was enough to solve the timing problem and get a museum included on an overnight tour itinerary. And sometimes it was just the extra feature needed to turn a museum into a day trip destination of its own.
For my clients, having a guide on board enhanced the museum experience and added value to it. Hearing the stories and personalities behind the buildings we passed put the community's heritage into context, brought its architecture to life and fostered a sense of connection.
And all of this can be accomplished in a surprisingly short amount of time. The Silver City Museum, a regional history museum in southwest New Mexico, for example, gives half-hour tours focusing on Silver City's historic architecture and landmarks. Advance reservations are required and both staff and volunteers are trained as guides. Susan Berry, the museum's director, says that while the museum doesn't charge a set fee for its step-on service, groups typically give a $50 donation.
In Wilmington Delaware, the Delaware History Museum offers tours of the city's historic areas that last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. According to Timothy Mullin, Director of Museums for the Historical Society of Delaware, the service is a popular add-on to senior tours that include the museum and its interactive Distinctly Delaware exhibit. A seated nostalgia program such as "grocery marketing -- from the corner store to the super store" is included as well.
Both of these institutions began their step-on guide service in response to tour operator requests. If your museum has had similar inquiries, or if you'd simply like to increase the marketability of your group tour program, this is a service you might want to consider adding too -- particularly if you're in an area where step-on guides are hard to come by.
Some cities and towns have tour guide regulations and/or prohibited routes for tour buses, so check with local authorities before beginning your planning. And when choosing your guides, remember that flexibility, humor and an outgoing personality are important and necessary assets for any step-on guide to have. Susan Berry also suggests choosing people "who can interpret the small 'gee whiz' facts as well as the broad historical themes."
Once your program is in place, don't neglect promotion. Announce your service in press releases. Mention it in all group tour advertising that you do. Add a promotional page to your website. And be sure to get the word out to your regional receptive operators and tourism promotion organizations, as well as to the group sales departments at nearby restaurants and hotels.
(For more tips on group tour marketing, read the other articles in our Articles Index and visit the Cultural Heritage Tourism page in our Links Library.)
Copyright © 2001 Katherine Khalife All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, please e-mail info@museummarketingtips.com
Katherine Khalife is a writer and consultant specializing in museum marketing, customer service and heritage cultural tourism. See the Services section for information about her workshops and other services.
