Facts and numbers concerning the attractions industry collected by Tracy Kahaner(left), Kahaner Research

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Yearly attendance averages for San Francisco’s Exploratorium

•    575,000: average annual attendance

•    52% of visitors are adults and 48% are children

•    51% are from the San Francisco Bay Area, 30% from the rest of California, 14% from other states, and 5% from outside the US.

•    110,000 school-age students and chaperones visit the museum each year and of these approximately 73% participate in the Field Trip program

•    47% of visitors receive free or discounted admission

•    43,000 visitors attended on Free Wednesdays (the first Wednesday of every month) in 2009

Source: Exploratorium

Year-over-year increases for Chicago cultural attractions

14.9 million in 2009 was the total attendance reported (in January 2010) for 14 cultural attractions in the Chicago area, representing a jump of 7% over 2008. The findings were based on numbers from the 10 museums that make up Chicago’s Museums in the Park (see chart below) plus the Chicago Botanical Garden, Chicago Children’s Museum, Chicago Zoological Society/Brookfield Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo.

8.3 million in 2009 was the total attendance reported for Museums in the Park alone, representing a 9 percent increase over the previous year.

Source: Museums in the Park

Images: kind courtesy The Field Museum.  © The Field Museum, John Weinstein