Visitor record for Quake City and Canty Museum

More than 800,000 people visited Canterbury Museum and its special exhibition about the region’s quakes in 2018.

The number of visitors to the museum and Quake City rose to 802,595 last year – a 5 per cent increase on the year before, which had also been a record year for visitor numbers.

Museum director Anthony Wright said a series of very popular exhibitions – like Dogs in Antarctica and Canterbury and World War One – and growing tourist numbers in the city contributed to the result.

New developments like the central library, Tu¯ ranga, were encouraging more people into the city.

‘‘It feels as though the city has well and truly turned the corner, not just in the number of tourists visiting, but more importantly with the number of locals coming back into the central city.’’

The museum had been concerned about having to move Quake City to Durham St North in mid-2016, but was ‘‘thrilled’’ record numbers were visiting the paid-for exhibition, Wright said.

Last year, 62,780 people visited Quake City, up from the previous record of 55,227 when the exhibition opened in 2013.

The museum’s current exhibition, Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone, opened just before Christmas and was ‘‘attracting a lot of interest from locals and tourists’’, he said.