exemplifies year-round Albuquerque's position as the "Ballooning Capital of the World."
On June 30, the end of the 2016 fiscal year, the museum reached another milestone with all-time-high attendance of 133,742 visitors, an increase of 17 percent over last year, with over 19,000 additional people visiting the museum.
By mid-May the museum had exceeded last year's totals, consistently posting a 15 percent increase in attendance and admission revenues during each month of the fiscal year, leading manager Paul Garver to comment on the reasons behind the growth. "This indicates that increases occurred in all segments of the museum's operations, including events, educational programs, facility rentals, and general visitation," he noted, "in other words, there was not a spike due to one particular activity. Basically, everything was up."
Since Garver arrived in the summer of 2015 he has worked to increase the Balloon Museum's role within the broader Albuquerque community, placing an emphasis on the museum as a center for exploration and learning, particularly as related to STEM topics (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)-all integral to ballooning. One such example is the museum's teaming with RoboRAVE International to present a global lighter-than-air (LTA) robotics challenge for elementary, middle and high school teams.
The Balloon Museum celebrated its 10th Anniversary in October 2015 with events, programs and festive celebrations, and has presented a range of programs that include its award-winning "Stories in the Sky" for young children, and a special series "Science in the Sky" for primary school-age children.
|
|
 |
|
Balloon Museum volunteers conduct the radio-controlled hot air balloon programs sponsored by Sandia Peak Tramway, one of the many programs attracting visitors to the museum.
|
|
Large public events like the Mini Maker Faire, the Great New Mexico Food Truck Festival, Renaissance Faire and others bring thousands to the museum to experience the event and the learning experience that is offered by the museum. Rentals also increased from the previous year.
According to Garver, the Balloon Museum has been actively marketing through tools such as news releases and media alerts, as well as through website updates, e-mail blasts, stronger social media campaigns and advertising. "We also coordinate our marketing efforts with our support organization, the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum Foundation, to maximize our reach to new audiences and to stay in touch with our current audiences," he added.
Garver indicated that the Balloon Museum anticipates an even bigger year ahead with the upcoming openings of the Tim Anderson 4-D Theater, a new exhibition called "Arctic Air" which follows the late 19th century attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon, and The Weather Lab, an immersive and interactive meteorology exhibition.
Since it opened in 2005, the Museum has welcomed over 800,000 visitors from Albuquerque and many other communities in New Mexico, as well as from across the country and around the world. Through its extensive collection of artifacts, interactive special exhibitions, and engaging educational programs, the Museum is a gateway to science, exploration, and discovery. The Museum is open year round and hosts many community-oriented special events, features unique art and architecture, and offers distinctive rental spaces for meetings, weddings and receptions, and other celebrations.
