The Royal Air Force Museum is proud to announce that both its London and Cosford sites have enjoyed year on year double-digit growth in visitor numbers for the period from 1 April 2014 to 30 September 2014. 

This growth in numbers has been driven by three strategic decisions made by the Trustees of the Museum in late 2013: to invest more in the marketing of the museum’s London and Cosford sites to key audiences; to create engaging temporary exhibitions & events promoting them through social media; and to invest in a new, technology-based counting system for visitor numbers as recognised throughout the Museum and Visitor Attraction sectors.

Visitor numbers for the Museum’s London site now stand at 203,105 – up 69% on the same period last year; whilst visitor numbers for Cosford stand at 184,506 , excluding the Cosford Air Show, – up 20% on the same period last year.

To put these figures into further context, total visitor numbers for the year 2013/2014 were 236,458 for the museum’s London site and 265,808 for Cosford, excluding the Cosford Air Show.

Commenting on this performance, Paul Hudson, Head of Marketing for the Museum stated:

‘This growth in numbers is indicative of the work that the Museum has undertaken at both its sites in creating new exciting temporary exhibitions and a dynamic calendar of events that have struck a chord with the public.

You only have to look at the interest on various social media platforms generated by exhibitions such as ‘Pilots of the Caribbean’ at Cosford and ‘Biggles and Chums’ in London, and events such as our Open Cockpit Evenings, Cosford Food Festival or Public Service Broadcasting’s London Residency for Museums at Night to see that we are producing experiences that are not only being talked about by our visitors but also being recommended to others.

We anticipate that this trend will continue as we unveil new exciting exhibitions and events that will get the public talking even more about the Museum. We also anticipate that our visitor numbers for the latter half of the year will be given yet a further boost thanks to the opening of our Heritage Lottery Fund supported ‘First World War in the Air’ exhibitions at both London and Cosford later this year.’

Admission to the Royal Air Force Museum at London and Cosford is free of charge. The Museum is open daily from 10:00 am. For further information about the events and exhibitions at either site please go to www.rafmuseum.org/whatson for London and www.rafmuseum.org/fun4all for Cosford.

Tags: 2014, News, November, RAF Museum