Mottisfont Abbey — Secondary Spend Case Study

Secondary spend — focus on the core business

At Mottisfont Abbey we’ve focused on our core business. We’ve been creative in our thinking around secondary spend but have tried to keep thinking about what we’re actually set up to do well.

Mottisfont Abbey is a pay for entry site so secondary spend is everything that visitors spend when they’re on site, which includes:

• Retail
• Catering
• Membership sales
• On-site fundraising e.g. buying a raffle ticket or making a donation.

The National Trust is a membership organisation and the majority of our visitors are members. If visitors are happy — they’re having a good time, enjoying themselves — then they will spend more time here and are happy to spend money on an ice-cream, a tasty, homemade cake and a decent cup of coffee.

We make a profit on all of the secondary spend, so it’s a form of income generation that’s very important to us.

We’ve chosen to focus on secondary spend rather than front-loading admission prices, so that we maximise potential visitor numbers and also avoid annoying members with additional charges.

Instead at Mottisfont we’ve focused on visitors having a lovely time so that they come back several times a year, stay longer and feel like spending more on refreshments or buying a present in our gift shop. It’s a virtuous circle that so far seems to be working.

“If you can make your own unrestricted earned income you will be liberated — you will be free to do the core purpose of your organisation — to do the brilliant and creative work that you want to do with all communities.”

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Mottisfont Abbey — Secondary Spend Case Study