Considering George Vanderbilt created the 250-room château on 8,000
acres more than a century ago as a retreat for family and friends,
the additions fit with the site's legacy. "We're selling the idea
of escape," says Chris Cavanaugh, Biltmore's vice president of
marketing. "We made a conscious decision several years ago to begin
focusing upon not just the features, but also the benefits to our
guests of visiting
America's largest home. And the benefit that
best matched up with the history of the estate, but also matched up
with our guests' needs, was escape."
The strategy has worked. The Biltmore Estate doesn't release annual
figures, but Cavanaugh says visitors number between 900,000 and one
million. In 2002, the first full year with the new inn, attendance
rose 6.5 percent over 2000, the last full year without it, at a
time when attendance declined at other heritage sites
nationwide.
At Conner Prairie, a 19th-century open-air living-history museum on
1,400 acres north of
Indianapolis, attendance has soared,
increasing 67 percent in four years since executives there began
studying visitor reaction, changing its offerings, and rethinking
its marketing. "People don't think of us as a museum," says Ellen
Rosenthal, Conner Prairie's executive director. "We are an
attraction, like Disney World is an attraction."
So they looked to theme parks for ideas. "Theme parks create a
varied experience that includes rides, performances, shopping,
food, comfort - being able to sit down and rest - and the
aesthetics of the place," Rosenthal says. "But the primary
importance from a history museum's point of view is that they've
figured out how to involve the visitor in the experience."