Gettysburg vistor's center to raise fees

[Bummer]

I hear that the G'burg visitor's center is raising their entrance fee from $7 to $10.50. I bet that is going to go over really well with people. A typical family will now be hit up for something like $42 bucks--kind of serious money now, and from what I hear of most folks opinion of the place it might not be so worth it.
And this after they refused to honor my NPS Disabled Veteran's pass this spring.

Strange things are happening in Gettysburg, and I don't mean ghosts.

[guad42]

Re: Gettysburg vistor's center to raise fees

That's just great.

I am amazed they did not honor your disabled veterans pass. If you ask me our veterans have already paid their way to enter any of our Nat'l Parks, and shouldn't have to pay to take their families to the landmarks and places they've served to protect and defend.

-Sam Dolan

[PanzerJager]

Re: Gettysburg vistor's center to raise fees

You know, after getting to view the museum for free I wouldn’t spend a dime to take my family to the new visitor center. Perhaps if they had more of the collection on display instead of just emptay space, perhaps if the displays where properly organized with displays not being mislabeled or maybe if the museum actually told the story of the battle as opposed to being a half-assed wannabe Pamplin Park I might not have a problem with the entrance fee. The entrance fee hike is bad enough but to refuse the disabled vets NPS admission is just insulting. Basically I want to feel like I am getting my moneys worth and the current museum falls short, very short. Am I the only one that misses the old visitor center?

Regards,

[Dignann]

Re: Gettysburg vistor's center to raise fees

Battlefield museum hikes fee to $10.50

Officials say higher admission will help foundation meet revenue goals.

By ERIN JAMES

The Evening Sun [Hanover, Penn.]
June 12, 2009

Visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center - once planned as a free facility for the display of Civil War artifacts - are about to see yet another hike in the facility's admission fee.

On Monday, the price for an adult to explore the museum, see a 22-minute film and view the Cyclorama painting will increase from $7.50 to $10.50.

Admission for children ages 6 to 18 will change from $5.50 to $6.50, and senior citizens and active members of the military will be charged $9.50 - up from $6.50.

Visitors also have the option of purchasing a ticket exclusively for the museum at a price of $6 for adults and $4 for children. Also new is the option to purchase advanced tickets online for a 15- to 20-percent discount.

The price hike is the result of eight months of evaluation since the museum's admission fee was first instituted in October, said Gettysburg Foundation spokeswoman Dru Neil.

Neil said officials have conducted many visitor surveys and mostly collected feedback from people who said the admission price was a bargain.

"Most people we have talked to thought $7.50 was really, really low for an attraction of our size," she said.

Several of the museum's visitors on Thursday did in fact say that $7.50 was cheap, and $10.50 would be reasonable.

"We've paid more for less entertainment," said Minnesota resident Dan Bakke, who visited the museum with his wife and three daughters. "That was worth more than a ($9) movie."
But when asked for her opinion on the upcoming price increase, Linda Bodnar, of Washington, Pa., was less enthusiastic.

"Oh my gosh!" she said. "Thank God we were here today. I would not feel it's worth it at all."

Plans for a new Gettysburg visitor center stretch back more than a decade, and park officials had always insisted on building a museum that would be open free of charge. The Gettysburg Foundation was established to both raise funds for the project and handle operations when the museum opened.

But five months after the center's April 2008 opening, officials said they projected a $1.78-million shortfall in annual revenue. Ticket sales to the 22-minute film titled "A New Birth of Freedom" had been disappointing. Officials expected a third of visitors to pay $8 to see the film, but far fewer were willing to do so.

The result was the institution of an admission fee.

This time around, Neil said the price change is not being driven so much by a projected deficit as by an attempt to keep the Gettysburg Foundation on track to meet its revenue goals.

"The best way to describe it is tweaking to find that perfect balance," she said. "We just want to make sure that we stay on that target."

She said, however, that the original pricing strategy has so far been a success. About 1.2 million have walked through the museum's doors since it opened.

"We've definitely closed the (revenue) gap, and it's going well. We just want to keep things going well," Neil said. "It absolutely has been a success. I would say visitors are happy."

Some locals, on the other hand, were strongly opposed to the admission-fee proposal and expressed those sentiments during a review period that included a public hearing on Sept. 18 and the option of sending comments directly to park Superintendent John Latschar.

At the time, many Gettysburg business owners expressed concern over the possibility that visitors could be less inclined to spend money downtown if fees are imposed upon visitors at the museum.

Others objected to the idea of charging a price to see artifacts they said should be available free to the American public on principle. Mismanagement by the Gettysburg Foundation was also alleged, and some said expenses should be cut to preserve the free museum.

But on Thursday, Neil said officials are confident $10.50 is not unaffordable.

"We're sure now that it's not," she said. "But we want to double and triple check that."

The park and foundation are constantly collecting visitor feedback and will avoid charging a price that deters visitation.

"Our number one concern is our visitors being able to have this experience," she said. "We absolutely will never go crazy because we don't want the visitors to stop coming. We want this to be something that visitors can afford. That's our number-one goal."

http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_12572391

Eric

[stubbynick]

Re: Gettysburg vistor's center to raise fees

Seth,
I am one of many that miss the old Visitor's Center! I was in Gettysburg back in May and felt like I had lost an old friend while I looked upon the leveled bare ground of where the building once stood with the old asphalt parking lot empty forever all fenced in.

Gerald Smolik
Co.A, 4th Va. Inf.
ANV

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Gettysburg vistor's center to raise fees

I too miss the old visitors center. It was so cool to see the hundreds of muskets and other artifacts recovered from the battlefield. Now it seems like they've switched to more of a political view and synopsis of the war rather than focusing on the battle.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Gettysburg vistor's center to raise fees

Hallo!

Moderator hat on...

This thread is a continuance of the same thread that was just locked for having out-lived its usefulness and that had skated out onto the thin ice of Modern Politics.

Please either reread the previously lock thread, or continue it on other CW boards where it is flourishing.

Curt