The energy crisis could pose more of a threat to UK museums than Covid-19, the Museums Association (MA) has warned. MA director Sharon Heal (2022) said that museum directors are “desperately searching” for solutions to rising energy costs, which have seen some bills increase by up to 500%.
Heal commented that “Earlier this year, museum directors across the country were focused on steadily reconnecting with their communities in the aftermath of Covid-19. Few of us imagined that another storm was brewing – one that could prove even more damaging to the British museum community than the global pandemic.”
The warning comes after a survey by the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) found that of 350 institutions in the UK, 90% were planning actions to tackle cost pressures by reducing operating hours, increasing income, using reserves, reducing energy consumption and cost-cutting measures, while 40% were planning to save money by reducing public events, delaying or cancelling projects and scaling down the public offering.
Some attractions are looking to innovation to survive. At Dublin Zoo, where energy bills have gone up by 90%, electricity is a necessity as it is needed for animal life support systems, lighting, habitat barriers, gates, veterinary equipment, food preparation, storage and visitor-related systems such as admissions and zoo catering outlets. The zoo has made an investment to ensure its Wild Lights event can run this year without impacting the national energy grid this winter.
To ensure Wild Lights has no impact on the energy supply it will be taken off the grid and powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) made from 100pc renewable raw materials.
“Hydrotreated vegetable oil is synthesised from waste fats and vegetable oil. Other steps taken to reduce energy consumption include LED lights and shortening the daily running time of the event by an hour,” a spokesperson said.
“Dublin Zoo had the option of running Wild Lights off the national energy grid at a much lower cost to the organisation in comparison to the cost of HVO, but given the upcoming electricity issues faced by the Irish public, we made the decision to invest in alternative sustainable means to power the event.”
Talking points:
What can attractions do to survive financially/economically in such a challenging fiscal climate? Are their other options than closure?
How can attractions pan for crisis management of various types. Remember that this ‘economic meltdown’ is following hot on the heels of a global pandemic!
The Attraction 
I believe that visitor attractions will struggle to survive the winter of discontent. With Christmas time soon approaching and the cold and dark nights drawing in, the costs will create a ‘perfect storm’ that could hit some sectors harder than Covid Lockdowns Bournemouth Council BID has said. There has been an increased urgency for the Government to intervene or face collapsing companies and increasing job losses. Businesses are coming out of the summer season and energy use will rise as the temperatures dip and it is creating what can only be described as a perfect storm. Businesses are seeing energy bills rise by tens of thousands of pounds.
A UK company TravelTime World launched a marketing campaign recently titled ‘The Heat is on’ highlighting the low cost of holidays. Its aims to encourage travellers to book a winter holiday’s abroad in order to avoid high energy bills (Euro Travel News, 2022)
The company that is responsible for organising the famous Christmas Lights display on Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street have said that the hours that the illuminations would be on would be reduced, cutting energy consumption by two-thirds in comparison to previous years. However, in an effort to minimise the negative impacts and make it more sustainable this years some of the illuminations will be made up of LEDs made from recycled polymer (Mavrokefalidis, 2022)
Although there are a lot of free attractions in the UK, these are benefiting from increased visitor numbers, however, donations are down an average of 20% in comparison to 2021 (Adams, 2022). I believe that this will significantly impact these attractions which are often of a smaller scale.
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I believe to survive financially they would need to cut down on overspending. So spend and use items that are absolutely necessary. For example, for some seasonal attractions like the land of the light, I would say to use a lot of electricity to be able to light up the lantern. I Would imagine economically that’s a large bill. Which I presume is the reason why the price per ticket has increased to be able to continue bringing in the funds for the expenses needed.
Following the pandemic, a lot of attractions increased their prices to be able to afford to stay open.
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