The bar chart gives information about how many of three categories of people (adult visitors, visitors aged under 15, and those who came for special exhibitions) to a museum in four different years with 5-year intervals: 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012.
Overall, the figures for grown-up visitors and those who were treated as VIPs followed an upward trajectory over the years, with the former topping the list and seeing a drastic rise and the latter going up steadily and ranking third consistently. Conversely, children and adolescents under the age of 15 became increasingly less interested in setting foot in such a recreational place, with their number dropping gradually during the timeframe. Notably, the total number of museum-goers had risen significantly by the final year.
Examining the growing trends, the number of those labelled as ‘adult visitors’ started the period at 300,100, more than ten times as many as exclusive exhibition guests (28,000) in 1997. Both cohorts had recorded minimal growth by 2002, showing ascents of 2,100 and 1,200 respectively. While the number of adult visitors skyrocketed and reached its peak at above 400,000 after 5 years, the figure for the VIPs went up slightly to 37,700. In contast, the number of mature individuals travelling to the museum dropped 5 years later and culminated at 380,000, whereas that of their counterparts who enjoyed the sight of special artifacts kept increasing to reach 42,000 in the end.
As for the younger visitors, the trend shifted. Their number stood at 120,000 initially, ranking second and distantly following the largest figure belonging to their older counterparts. However, it plummetted from this point onwards to reach 110,000 first in 2002, then less than 90,000 in 2005, and 82,300 in the last year, still maintaining its previous ranking.
The total number of museum-goers, on the other hand, registered a rising trend despite some fluctuations in between. It saw a minimal reduction of around 7,000 from 448,100 by 2002, after which it soared to over 525,000 but decreased by approximately 20,000 again by 2012. However, it was much larger in 2012 than it was in 1997.