Although the recession along with the 10% jobless rate continue to plague the Bay Area the city's museums have reported record breaking numbers of attendance during the last year. The Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Asian Art Museum and the de Young have recorded a 42% attendance increase from February 2009 to February 2010, according to the San Francisco Controller's Office. Over the past year San Francisco city museums have hosted a number of unique events and popular exhibits, which have played a major role in the attendance increase.
A few of the most popular exhibits were the 'King Tut' exhibition at the the de Young, which drew a record breaking number of visitors, Shanghai at the Asian Art Museum, as well as several monthly after hours mixers. The new and exciting exhibits have definitely drawn a newer and younger crowd to the city's museums, but the recession has also played a large part of the increase. Many local residents are choosing to stay at home instead of travel during their vacation and this 'staycation' practice has brought a lot of city residents to the museums over the last year. Due to the large number of local city residents estimated to 'staycation' this year all three museums along with the San Francisco Visitor and Convention Bureau are working together to promote local attractions to area residents.
