NEW YORK: Take a guided tour of Elvis Presley’s home from your sofa or marvel at old masters’ paintings in The Met without visiting New York: museums, forced to adapt by the pandemic, are now offering paid virtual tours — but how big a source of income will they become?
Interactive walks, video games and podcasts are some of the numerous free innovations museums have launched to try to mitigate the effects of closures and a slump in visitors caused by coronavirus. But more and more institutions are now pushing paid options also.
Presley’s home Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, has been offering two-hour-long tours by guide Angie Marchese for $100 a head since January.
Some 300 people, the maximum capacity, signed up for each of the first two virtual tours in which they hear anecdotes about Presley, see objects he owned and can ask questions about his life.
In December, Barbara…
