CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.-
Monticello has begun advertising in regional and national publications in an attempt to reverse a steady decline in attendance.
“Traditionally we spent little on paid advertising,” Monticello spokesman Wayne Mogielnicki told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Now we’re doing concentrated marketing.”
The ad campaign is aimed largely at the educated and prosperous Washington area. Local wineries and hotels also have been enlisted to promote Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop estate.
Monticello drew more than 500,000 visitors annually from 1981 to 2001. But attendance has steadily declined since 1990, hitting about 450,000 last year. This year, attendance is down almost 2 percent.
“The visitors we’re apparently not seeing is the family of four driving up in their car,” Mogielnicki said. “It’s been a slow erosion.”
Statistics compiled by Monticello show that about 60 percent of visitors are first-timers, and about 10 percent of visitors are so enthralled they return frequently.
“Everybody who comes here indicates they have a good experience,” Mogielnicki said. “We just can’t get more people to come here.”
The ad campaign is intended to change that. What Monticello doesn’t plan to do, however, is change visitors’ experience by using costumed interpreters or firing cannons.
“Compared to a lot of attractions, I guess we’re staid,” Mogielnicki said. “We’re geared more toward education than entertainment. That’s a choice we made.”
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