Visitors do not leave your heritage site truly understanding the story of the site, or the value in preservation of historic sites and landscapes. Memberships to your organization are flat or declining. Your marketing brochures have pictures of landscapes, furniture or buildings, but no people in the pictures. You have to reduce hours of operation due to poor visitation. It is difficult to keep guides or volunteers.
Staff begin to move on to other sites.
Interpretation is an attitude. Interpretation is not just a thing, like a board or exhibit. It is a way of thinking about the quality of the communication and services you will provide to visitors. It is a love of talking to and with visitors, and getting them as excited about the site as you are. Without this attitude about interpretive quality and customer care excellence, the site and visit becomes stale, boring and lacks soul.