Visitor studies using standardized questionnaires are popular in marketing-oriented research. Yet these surveys often contend with high nonresponse rates because of the peculiarity of the survey context. Spectators are contacted and persuaded to participate in a survey when they are attending—sometimes en masse—an event outdoors. In this article, the particular correlates of contactability in visitor studies are explored. More specifically, correlates of contactability in audience research in cultural institutions staging music, theater, opera, and dance are analyzed. The resulting model offers practical guidelines for conducting arts-related research in terms of the number of interviewers required to achieve a desired contact rate—given an expected audience size and a planned method for data collection.
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