The Easter Egg thing happened due to a ridiculous decision between Cadburys and the NT. Cadburys donated the eggs to the NT and wanted some additional promotional opportunities. At the same time the NT were questioning why they didnt appeal to other parts of the population, rather than the typical pensioners and empty nesters. A lot of marketing was then aimed at families and ethnic minorities. It was then decided that they wouldnt make Easter having a religious theme, something they later regretted. Incidentally Easter used to see the biggest number of visitors to the properties, giving a headache to the property staff and overrunning cafes etc.
The rainbow situation resulted from some research from a focus group. This said that they should tell more local stories about the inhabitants of the properties. There was one property that had a very flamboyant homosexual resident. All properties were then instructed to research any links that they may have had to LGBTQ. Again they went back to a focus group made up of gay people belonging to one of the campaign groups, who agreed that this should be promoted. Unfortunately they then went ahead and forced everyone to support diversity. A lot of people felt very awkward about this, not only the ones who didnt support diversity but also ones who did support diversity. I have a son who is LGBTQ, who strongly believes in living his life without the need to promote the fact that he is both trans and gay. He felt that this campaign made him some sort of peep show.
Fox hunting, the NT sit on the fence massively. They do support country sports a massive number of benefactors are country folk who believe in hunting. However a lot of members are from urban areas and are anti hunting. Therefore at best hunting is not discussed publicly.
I dont know how you try to modernise the NT.
The membership base is predominately 55+, white and lives in the South East.
They do attract young families when the children are young, but lose these when they become teenagers.
Some of the properties are very interesting, but many are second rate attractions and do not appeal to none members.
The NT will never become a theme park, as this is outside of their charitable status.
Most of the people who visit, do so because they are mixing with people like themselves. To change that would risk alienating the people who support them.
The crunch points for visiting i.e. weekends, bank holidays in the summer creates crunch points when the properties become overwhelmed and cant cope. They need to promote visiting on weekdays, so pensioners and Mums with kids (not at school).
It should continue to do what it does well and not alienate the people who support the charity
