JORVIK enjoyed another successful year, welcoming 427,628 visitors. This year JORVIK has concentrated on broadening its educational appeal through a wide range of new activities and facilities to create improved access for all and enhanced levels of visitor satisfaction. The overall objective of this policy has been to encourage increased interest in archaeology and the Trust's wider activities. This long-term strategy began to pay dividends towards the end of the financial year, with evidence of an increased awareness of activities undertaken by the Trust as a whole, the creation of a more diverse visitor base, wider interest from schools, and improved visitor levels.

One of the major facility changes undertaken this year was to move the shop from the basement to street level within the space occupied previously by the café. The area vacated downstairs enabled a third gallery to be opened in January 2004. This gallery was intended to be used to increase visitor satisfaction and dwell time, as well as to extend the themes already addressed at JORVIK and to demonstrate and celebrate the wider work of the Trust. The initial exhibition, entitled Unearthed, uses human bone to explore how past residents of York lived and died. It depicts excavation work and post-excavation examination of the bones, which allows us to build up a picture of life, death, battle, disease, diet and occupation in 10th- and 11th-century York. The exhibition received a grant of £20,000 from the Wellcome Trust through its 'Engaging Science People's Award' programme, and a further £8,000 from the same source to develop an outreach resource for schools based on similar themes.

Other improvements included the creation of a 'stage' in the Artefacts Gallery and the introduction of regular talks by interactive staff and visiting archaeologists. These improvements have had a noticeable impact on the perception of the overall attraction, with 84% of visitors rating the interactive staff contribution as good or very good. The addition of the new gallery and enhanced interactive involvement has increased the average 'dwell time' by approximately half an hour, which in turn is reflected in positive visitor feedback.

JORVIK continues to recognise the importance of the contribution made by members of staff throughout its activities. Further investment, therefore, has been made in staff development, including training ranging from stage fighting skills to IOSH Health and Safety at Work management training.

The new shop at JORVIK, designed by IWM Designs from Bolton, was opened in November 2003 by the Lord Mayor of York. It offers a range of products that complement and enhance the themes addressed at JORVIK. The shop also aims to increase income by capitalising on passing trade as well as visitors to the attraction. The success of the new shop was particularly apparent during the Christmas period, when it achieved an average of 20% higher spend than in 2002.

Targeted and effective marketing of the improved facilities and activities is obviously vital, and JORVIK's marketing team was transformed during the year, with the recruitment of several new people including Gordon Webber as Marketing Manager in October 2003. Gordon had previously managed marketing for theatres in the south of England, and he also has excellent graphic design skills. JORVIK also recruited James Ragan as Sales and Corporate Development Executive. These changes have enabled the marketing team to focus on promoting JORVIK and the ARC to as wide an audience as possible throughout the region and beyond. An extremely successful corporate familiarisation evening was held during the summer of 2003, when JORVIK welcomed over 100 business representatives from the region. PR coverage this year has included features on A Question of Sport, Bill Oddie's History Hunt, the Terry and Gaby Show, the 'BBC Breakfast Show and Calendar, as well as local and national newspaper and magazine exposure.

The marketing team has continued to work closely with the Trust's events manager to offer a full programme of visitor events at JORVIK and within the wider city centre. All of the events for this year have been advertised extensively using fliers and posters distributed within the region in an attempt to encourage local visitors. Visitors from further afield this year have included the Ambassador of Japan, the Ambassador of Norway and representatives from the Royal Saudi Air Force.

The major event of the year was again the Viking Festival in February 2004, which capitalised on the success of earlier years and attracted some 14,800 visitors during the week, a 3% increase on the previous year. The festival incorporated a wide range of new events including, as its finale, the Coronation of Eric Bloodaxe at York Minster, which played to a capacity audience of over 800 people. 'Vikings in the Square' saw activities, lectures and staged fights within a marquee in St Sampson's Square, and two 'Late Night JORVIK' events held exclusively for adults were both sold out. Other new events included a Viking wedding held in partnership with English Heritage at Clifford's Tower, 'Living History' at the ARC, the 'Roving JORVIK Café' at St Crux's Hall, and the Festival Lecture by Professor Arne Emil Christensen, Curator of the Oslo Ship Museum in Norway. Partners in the Festival this year included City of York Arts Service, English Heritage, Roamin' Tours, Barley Hall, Shona Griffith's Viking Walks, The Adze Gallery, The King's Arms public house, York Theatre Royal, Coppergate Management, YorkBoat, Barwill Ferries, Regia Anglorum and Friends of York Archaeological Trust.

As a result of improvements made this year, the rate of decline in visitor numbers began to slow towards the end of the year. Financial performance was encouraging, a surplus of £950,000 being achieved. The introduction of visitor admission gift aid contributions to the Trust from December 2003 has aided income generation at JORVIK, although it remains to be seen how long this benefit will continue in future years.

External factors affecting visitor numbers at JORVIK this year are primarily those that have been endemic for a number of years, including the continued decline in visitors from overseas as a result of new terrorist threats, and increased competition within the market place. Most indoor attractions reported a decline in visitors during the summer months due to good weather, which attracted visitors to coastal or outdoor venues.

JORVIK recognises, however, that merely accepting these conditions is not an option and, as outlined above, made stringent efforts throughout the year to put into place a series of operational, facility and strategic changes, both large and small, to take JORVIK forward in the next few years. As a result of this investment JORVIK has not only seen its visitor satisfaction figures achieve an 81% recommendation level, but also an increase of 9% in terms of perceived good or very good value for money. JORVIK received the award for visitor attraction of the year 2003 from the York Tourism Bureau for its excellence in customer service.

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