Last year was only the second time in a decade less than 1 million visitors appeared, and the lowest attendance numbers since 1994 when 808,152 visitors were counted, based on museum figures.
The downturn left museum officials without a sure answer on why the drop was so steep last year, but they pointed to several possible reasons.
Waiting for the big opening
Many visitors stayed away until the 224,000-square-foot expansion with more than 70 presidential, experimental, cargo planes and spacecraft and rockets opens June 8, according to museum director John “Jack” Hudson.
“From all the phone calls we’ve gotten, from all the email questions about when it’s going to open and just the general buzz out there about the new building coming, I expect to see a significant increase” this year in attendance, he said.
Another contributor to fewer visitors was the closure of a hangar Oct. 1 housing famous presidential aircraft and one-of-a-kind experimental planes, he said.
Located in a restricted-access area of Wright-Patterson, the hangar was shut down to move dozens of the aircraft into the new, massive gallery. More planes will be relocated in the weeks ahead.
Tighter security could have factored into lower numbers, too, Hudson added.
The weather-related cancellation of Freedom’s Call Tattoo, a one-day Air Force Materiel Command celebration that draws tens of thousands of people every summer to the museum grounds, and temporary closure of some exhibits for construction work may have contributed to the decline, also, museum spokesman Rob Bardua said in an email.
Attendance has averaged around a million visitors a year since 1981, but those numbers fluctuate for a range of reasons, from gas prices to weather conditions, he said. Based on four surveys between 2005 to 2012, about 41 percent of museum visitors are from Ohio.
Even so, “heritage” tourism has risen nationally, said TourismOhio Director Mary Cusick.
“The Air Force museum is a tremendous asset because it’s one-of-a-kind,” she said. “There’s really nothing like it.”
The largest free attraction in Ohio, the museum is a key driver to out-of-state visitors who also may visit historic sites tied to the Wright brothers.
“On any given day, you can go out to the museum and see a license plate from any given state,” said Jacquelyn Y. Powell, president and CEO of the Dayton Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The museum cut off private events and reduced the number of military gatherings to curtail costs starting in 2011. Those events, which numbered about 80 a year, were once counted in attendance totals, said Teresa Montgomery, Air Force museum chief of special events.
Military reunion groups and the National Aviation Hall of Fame’s yearly enshrinement ceremony are two events the museum does support, she said.
Organizations at Wright-Patterson also were reduced to one major event a year inside the museum because of funding cuts and staffing issues, she said.
Museums face the digital age
Attendance at museums has been flat in recent times, according to Johnna McEntee, executive director of the Ohio Museum Association. “I think that has a lot of do with the digital age,” she said.
But those who do visit number in the millions. A sample of 10 Ohio museums counted 9.6 million visitors in 2014. “Whether they visited in person or online, we know our museums are still getting a robust number of visitors,” she said.
Attendance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland was mostly flat in past years, but grew 15 percent in 2015, said Todd Mesek, the tourist attraction’s vice president of marketing and communications. That’s a total of about 510,000 visitors at the musical showplace on the Lake Erie shoreline.
To attract more visitors, the Hall of Fame unveiled a more immersive exhibit experience showcasing musical performers across generations, he said.
Paul Simon narrates his own exhibit, for example. Interactive displays, such as a museum-goer pushing a video screen to hear a story or listening to an actual guide narrate history, are linked to societal and cultural events of the day, Mesek said.
“In an era of social media and people having access to peer reviews, delivering that experience is really important,” he said.
Another boost, he said, was the return of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony last year, which rotates between cities.
Tourism = big business
Tourism is an economic juggernaut in Ohio. The state has not yet tallied total figures for 2015, but in 2014 the Buckeye State counted a record 200 million tourist visits with a $40 billion economic impact, according to TourismOhio.
A stronger economy since the Great Recession in 2009 has loosened pent-up demand to see a wide diversity of attractions in Ohio, Cusick said.
Of those visits, about 160 million represented Ohioans traveling in their home state and who have benefited from lower gas prices, she said.
“We’re really easy to get to … and it’s a great value,” she said. “People tell us their money goes a long way in Ohio.”
In 2013, the most recent figures available, Montgomery County tourism reached nearly $1.7 billion and counted 20,390 employees who earned a total of $445.3 million, according to a Tourism Economics study.
That same year in neighboring Greene County, tourism generated $569.3 million and employed nearly 6,800 who earned total wages of $136.3 million. In tax revenues, tourism brought in $219.3 million in Montgomery and $73.5 million in Greene counties, statistics show.
Although 2015 figures aren’t available yet, one key indicator in Montgomery County showed hotel occupancy was at 62.8 percent through November, compared to 58.8 percent the prior year, according to Powell.
Last year, tourism was “about flat’ in Greene County in 2015, said Katherine Wright, director of the Greene County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Staff photographer Lisa Powell contributed to this story.
About the Author