Quarter of a million visitors to the Met Rooftop and counting .....

An interesting article below in the Wall Street Journal, on the economic impact of the Met Exhibitions on the US economy. Even more interesting are the three 'high profile exhibitions' mentioned in the article, because the list includes Imran Qureshi's Rooftop exhibition.

Till the time of the study (end August), Mr Qureshi's exhibition had attracted over 259,000 visitors. With more than two months remaining till the end of the exhibition, it is safe to assume that over 400,000 would have visited the exhibition (from May 11 to Nov 3). What an impact !

No marks for guessing who had a bigger positive impact on the general American public - Imran Qureshi's exhibition or the PM's speech to the UN !

An ever counting

Artwallaa

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Source: The Met

 

Met Exhibitions Bring Tourism Dollars

Tourists Drawn to the Met Spent Some $401M During Spring and Summer

 By

Jennifer Maloney (Source:WSJ)

                          Out-of-town visitors, drawn to New York by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection and three high-profile exhibitions, spent some $401 million this spring and summer, according to a study released Monday by the museum.

The Met's economic impact in 2013 marked a slight increase from the $398 million seen in the previous season but was lower than the $472 million generated in 2011, when a blockbuster show devoted to the late British designer Alexander McQueen prompted a surge in visitors.

In total, 1,076 visitors were surveyed. The study was conducted this spring and summer by the Met's market-research and marketing arms.
 

Fashion exhibitions continued to be crowd-pleasers. In the spring and summer of 2013, "Punk: Chaos to Couture," about the rock genre's rebellious aesthetic, drew 442,350 visitors. "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity," which examined the clothes worn in Paris from the 1860s to 1880s, drew 440,973 visitors.
 

A third show, a rooftop installation by the Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi, opened in May and attracted 259,858 visitors before the study concluded on Aug. 31. (The exhibition is still open.)
 

By contrast, "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" drew 661,509 total visitors in 2011, pushing the museum's annual attendance to a record high of 6.3 million in the 2012 fiscal year.
 

This year, more than three-quarters (77%) of the museum's visitors traveled from outside the five boroughs of New York. Of these, 21% came from the tri-state area, 31% came from other states and 48% were international visitors. Among travelers, 78% reported staying overnight in the city.

As in past years, more than half of the Met's out-of-town visitors cited the museum as a key factor in their decision to come to New York. This year, those visitors yielded an estimated tax benefit to the city and state of $40.1 million, according to the study.
 

People who visited the Met also took advantage of the city's other cultural offerings: 73% visited other museums, 47% saw a Broadway show and 19% attended an opera, ballet or concert. Visitors from out of town reported spending $1,139 per person on average during their stay in New York, a decline of 3% from last year, attributed to a drop in shopping. They stayed for an average of 6.6 days.
 

Write to Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com