Thousands of local residents took advantage of the Historic Dockyard''s heavily discounted ticket offer over the long weekend 19th - 22nd March when ticket prices were cut to £5 per person for those holding a PO postcode.
The offer was to celebrate British Tourism Week and during the 4 days nearly 3000 people with a PO postcode visited - a jump of almost 400% on the same offer-free weekend last year. The additional numbers boosted total visitors to the Historic Dockyard over the weekend to almost 7,000.
Feedback from visitors was universally positive: "The £5 offer is a nice way of rewarding residents for introducing non-residents to the Dockyard" said Mrs Bradbury from Fareham and the site welcomed many visitors from the Isle of Wight, who had not visited before with one visitor saying: " I have never been before and the £5.00 ticket was the perfect excuse to come over." - Ventnor - IOW
Robert Bruce, Managing Director of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard explained: "It is often the case that people don''t visit what''s on their doorstep. Sometimes price can be a barrier so by cutting our tickets by over 70% we removed that barrier. Also, many Portsmouth residents do a great job of bringing visiting friend and relatives to the site during the year so this was a great way to reward that loyalty. This is the first of a number of schemes we wish to run for local residents and look forward to working with the library service later this year on a specially discounted offer."
The tickets were valid for one day and gave one entry to HMS Victory, HMS Warrior 1860, the Mary Rose Museum, Action Stations, the National Museum of the Royal Navy and a Harbour Tour. For those buying a ticket during the weekend they can keep their ticket and redeem it before 30th April 2010 to receive £5 off an adult, child or senior ticket to the Historic Dockyard.
