(10-02-2023, 05:59 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(10-02-2023, 03:52 PM)bravado Wrote: Makes you wonder that maybe they’d get more visitors if it was in a place near where people actually lived, instead of a place you just drove by and immediately forgot?
Given that they have the pioneer village, I don't think it's realistic to relocate anywhere closer to the city. But the location may make it harder yet to attract staff. I expect they'll have better staffing in the summer using student labour (they certainly did when I worked there as a student, many moons ago) but by September they'd be back to regular staff and maybe some part-timers (if they can attract those).
And I think it's the lack of staff that causes the issues JoeKW pointed out.
Last year, they only were open Wed[or Thurs] to Sunday 11-4, even during the summer. A decade ago, they were open 7 days 9-5, down to 5 (for the village) during the fall with the occasional special event on weekends [source: know someone worked there for a few summers/falls]. The museum was open 7 days, IIRC. There was generally no issue in recruiting students to work there, even when it was slightly off the beaten path.
What's more likely at play is the pandemic impacting budgets in the tourism sector even when the broader hours would most definitely drive more visitors.