Bad news is never welcome. Opening my inbox to read about a new report from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences' Humanities Indicators (HI) project on declining visitation to historic sites was indeed disappointing, but not unexpected. The report, citing visitation from 1979 to 2012, found that "with each birth cohort Americans of all ages have been less likely to visit historic sites." The report also shared that "as people aged they were less likely to visit a historic site." Not an optimistic picture for destinations and organizations wanting to use historic sites to attract visitors and their spending. The project report uses data from the National Endowment for the Arts' Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (1982, 1992, 2002, 2008, 2012). AASLH President John Dichtl observed in his blog post "the lack of reliable data on total visitation for U.S. historic ... [Read More]