Ideas & Insight

The summer season is over and the new school term is underway. Museums, heritage sites and visitor attractions now need more than a seasonal date in the diary: they need a meaningful new reason for people to return. September changes the rhythm of a visitor attraction. Schools return. Family calendars become more structured. The weather is less dependable. Holiday visitors begin to fall away, and local audiences become more important. At the same time, Halloween, autumn weeke

The discounts are ending. The useful work now is to measure what actually changed. For a few weeks this summer, Britain ran an unusually visible summer days-out experiment. A temporary 5% VAT rate applied to qualifying admissions and some related supplies from 25 June to 1 September. In August, participating local bus services in England could also carry children aged 5 to 15 free of charge. The intention was easy to understand: reduce the cost of the family day out and make