The dinosaur museum has always been a popular visiting spot! Whether it is used as a teaching and research travel base during the summer vacation (children are always curious about dinosaurs), or as a tourist destination during holidays (visitors come to admire the appearance of prehistoric giants), it is a place worth visiting. In the museum, visitors can personally see dinosaur fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago in the fossil interaction area, and also compare their size with the giant skeletons, gaining more knowledge of paleontology. It is well worth a visit.

As the operator of a museum, while ensuring that education is integrated with entertainment, could consider ways to increase the museum’s revenue? It is a tangible benefit, especially for private dinosaur museums. The museum can adopt effective revenue-generating strategies to motivate the work and operational enthusiasm of its staff and top management.

The good ways to make money for the dinosaur museum are as follows.

QUICK FACTS:

#1. Traditional ticket revenue (requires innovation in exhibits content)
#2. Derivative sales
#3. Conduct educational activities
#4. Leaseable venues are available for hosting commercial events / activities
#5. Immersive theatre
#6. Online monetization
#7. Exclusive fossil customization
#8. Sell snacks or food with dinosaur theme
#9. Business cooperation

1. Traditional ticket revenue (requires innovation in exhibits content)

If it’s only the income from visiting tickets, the revenue is actually limited and rather monotonous. The operators can certainly update the exhibits inside the museum and create new tour packages. For instance, there are VR experience packages featuring dinosaur adventures, or packages allowing you to experience the large dinosaurs in the real Jurassic World. Integrating more entertaining interactive experiences into the museum will enable to increase its ticket prices and thereby achieve greater profits.

The content of innovation:

• Dinosaur Adventure VR Riding Equipment: Tourists board the space ship or the riding dinosaur model, put on VR glasses, and then enter the virtual Jurassic world to enjoy the pleasure of flying in the dinosaur world and soaring among the dinosaur groups as big as mountains.
• Animatronic Dinosaur Exhibits: Large dinosaur models that can move and roar are placed somewhere in the museum. Visitors can see “real dinosaurs with flesh and blood”, touch them, and hear the desperate cries from the prehistoric era.

Other ways of selling tickets:

• Membership annual card: Family / Individual Memberships come with complimentary explanations, shopping discounts and other benefits.
• Group discount: The school and the travel agency etc. have collaborated with to offer group discounts.

2. Derivative sales

It is necessary to create distinctive theme souvenirs or cultural goods for museums. When tourists visit the museum for outstanding experience, what will make this journey memorable is collecting these distinctive dinosaur-themed souvenirsor cultural goods. Even some visitors will purchase quantities of souvenirs as meaningful gifts to give to others.

Popular dinosaur-themed souvenirs>

What are the popular cultural and creative products?

• Dinosaur models
• Popular science books
• Stationery items
• Fossil specimen replicas

Co-branded products:

• Children’s brand
• Toy brand
• clothing brand

Be able to contact these brand owners through phone calls or emails. If your museum has a good flow of visitors and frequently posts interesting interactive videos on social media, these brand owners are willing to collaborate with the museum for profit. Of course, museum operator can also independently seek out various manufacturers from China to customize souvenirs, clothing, toys, etc., to establish their own museum brand identity.

Manufacturers from CN recommend:

• Alibaba
• Dhgate
• Shein
• Temu

It is also possible to set up dinosaur-themed snacks, vending machines, blind box slot machines, and doll-catching machines in the museum to cater to the social attributes and entertainment interests of the current young population.

3. Conduct educational activities

Turn the museum into a base for both research and tourism! The place decorated with “real dinosaurs” and large dinosaur fossil replicas is naturally a tourist attraction, which can draw a large number of fans interested in dinosaurs to come and observe and learn. Based on this, staff within the museum can be assigned to educate the arriving fans, especially children, about basic paleontology knowledge; Regularly organizing teaching-related activities is also possible. Such activities not only help disseminate knowledge but also contribute to the museum’s tourism-related income.

How generate income through educational activities?

(1). First, an interesting educational interactive program needs to be planned. For instance, set up a small area, place some dinosaur fossil excavation sites (artificial replicas) inside, and cover them with sand. This way, children who are interested can take on the role of little archaeological explorers for a while, thereby gaining knowledge and having a fun experience during the excavation process.

(2). After formulating the educational interactive program, the issue of charging for participation needs to be considered. The charging standard can be determined based on the duration of participation. It is recommended that the duration of each participation session should not exceed 20-30 minutes.

Notification: The interactive excavation project is just one of the most popular models among various educational activities; This can also be achieved through activities such as guiding children to tell stories about the life and death of dinosaurs, the evolution process of dinosaur fossils, and observing the incubation process of dinosaur eggs. All of this needs to be implemented in conjunction with the current lighting and shadow technology (animation rendering) as well as the theme props.

4. Leaseable venues are available for hosting commercial events / activities

If the dinosaur museum has any idle space, it can also be leased out for commercial events / activities! For instance, rent out a piece of land and place a dozen or so dinosaur riding models there, and then implement a paid riding; or hold a dinosaur-themed stage show, and charge for admission to participate in an interactive dinosaur adventure tour.

Especially for private dinosaur museums, fully commercializing the operation, thereby creating “Interactive Dinosaur Cultural IP“, enabling the museum to achieve long-term profits.

What are the commercial dinosaur theme activities?

• Children’s birthday parties
• Halloween performances or parties
• Christmas performances or parties
• Spring Festival performances or parties
• Children’s Day performances or parties
• Filming location for movies and TV shows
• Shooting site for short videos (short plays)
• Shooting site for documentaries

5. Immersive theatre

Creating an immersive theatre within the museum and allowing visitors to pay to experience VR game “DANCE WITH DINOSAURS” or AR interactive fossil restoration, that is a promising revenue-generating project. It can also conduct holographic projections for shows such as “The Mystery of Dinosaur Extinction”. These programs that allow tourists to deeply engage in dinosaur-themed interactive activities, and also offer optional paid experiences with more mysterious features.

Affordable construction of immersive theatre:

(1).First, choose an empty room with an area of around 60 to 80 square meters.

(2).Purchase a holographic projection device, which can be filled with storylines such as “The Mystery of Dinosaur Extinction” or “The Survival Adventure of Baby Dinosaurs”.

(3).The holographic projection’s storyline is continuously replayed on the walls of this empty room.

Notification: If the budget is sufficient, you can also purchase a realistic dinosaur costume or a dinosaur puppet. When playing along with the storyline, these can enhance the interaction fun between the visitors and the show.

6. Online monetization

Make full use of the experts in the museum to turn the knowledge they orally convey about the evolution of dinosaurs, the mysteries of the Earth’s evolution, and the legends of prehistoric giants into interesting videos or audio books, and upload them to the museum’s official website for paid access. Or Create an all-museum, full-featured online exhibition, allowing interested enthusiasts to pay online to explore the museum virtually.

What are the main forms of online monetization?

• Display various knowledge about prehistoric creatures and unsolved mysteries as narrated by museum experts
• A book on paleontology written by experts
• Showcasing the various exhibition halls inside the museum (the museum tour online)
• Customized dinosaur theatre performances inside the museum

All of the above can be uploaded to the museum’s official website and generate income through online payment for viewing.

7. Exclusive fossil customization

Given the authority of the museum, the eclusive dinosaur fossil replicas can be produced. This customized item can serve as a souvenir for tourists and can also be placed in the private or office spaces of clients. Customized fossil models can be uploaded to the museum’s official website for reservation and sale.

Dedicated service:

• “Make a “fossil print” of your own name
• 3D printed dinosaur skeleton designed by the customer (small size)

8. Sell snacks or food with dinosaur theme

Once tourists enter the dinosaur museum for a visit, they will inevitably have demands for food and beverages. If dinosaur-themed snacks or food items were marketed, it would be possible to achieve relatively good profits. Especially for young visitors, they will have no resistance to food with dinosaur themes.

How can obtain these snacks or foods?

(1). Be able to collaborate with some fast food restaurants to produce some light and quick food or beverages, which can be replenished in the museum at any time.

(2). Make use of the advantages of online stores (such as Amazon and Alibaba), and purchase some snacks or beverages with dinosaur-themed packaging.

Notification: All the snacks or foods mentioned above must have packaging or images featuring dinosaur themes.

Food or snacks with decent profits:

• Hamburger
• Biscuits
• Chocolate
• Candy
• Ice cream
• Ice sucker
• Coke
• Beer
• Soda water
• Cake
• Bread
• Sandwich
• Pizza
• Coffee

Popular dinosaur foods or snacks recommend>

9. Business cooperation

The exhibition halls in the museum can be fully utilized. In addition to popular dinosaur exhibits, the exhibition hall can also display commercial information, such as that of science education brand companies, technology teaching equipment companies, game equipment companies, and so on.

The two main cooperation modes:

• Brand sponsorship – Collaborate with technology companies (such as VR equipment manufacturers) or educational institutions to jointly name the exhibition hall.
• IP licensing – Grant the image of dinosaurs in the museum to game and animation companies for use.

Conclusion

By diversifying its revenue sources, dinosaur museum can enhance its self-sustaining ability, while also strengthening public participation and brand influence. Once the museum’s income increases, funds can be allocated to enhance the stronger cultural and tourism IP attributes of the dinosaur museum, thereby establishing a sustainable cultural and creative industry that generates revenue.