Free pays off
According to the BBC, free national museums and major national venues saw visitor numbers boosted last year in the wake of the recession. I'm a little more hesitant to ascribe this totally to the economic crisis, and more to a combination of this and good programming. For example, the Tower of London is really expensive, but I suspect the huge numbers boost is more to do with their Henry VIII exhibit.
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Earlier this year I noticed a huge billboard in Leeds station advertising the fact that national museums in London are free - at the time I thought that they were making damn sure people saw their value and didn't take them for granted.