The art and history museum has come under fire over its counts for years, especially as a big chunk of its funding comes directly from ratepayers.
Masterton District Council granted $245,000 to Aratoi in the 2012/13 financial year and has budgeted $250,000 for this year, South Wairarapa District Council contributes $25,000 each year and Carterton District Council $12,000.
Mr Dunlop said that during the period of the manual count, the electronic counter recorded 26,864 and that did not include people who came in and went directly to Entice Cafe to the left of the actual museum entrance.
Both counts did include those who entered the main entrance going, at least initially, to the toilets - an estimated 25 per cent.
"Given the Masterton District Council's, and media's, fascination with visitor counts, this real data will enable staff to respond with some confidence," Mr Dunlop said.
He confirmed there were a multitude of reasons why the two counts varied so dramatically. The electronic count would include people who called at the desk outside the museum proper but did not enter, visitors to a shop, the information centre and simply people who entered the building numerous times in the course of a day.
The latter would include the comings and goings of Aratoi staff.
Mr Dunlop said research had shown only small variations on visitor numbers could be attributed to a change of seasons, although it was likely the warmer months attracted extra museum visitors simply because more visitors came to Masterton.
He said releasing the manual count details was a means of establishing bona fide statistics on actual visitors to the art and history museum.
Aratoi visitor numbers have long been the subject of debate, particularly in its first few years when several Masterton District councillors claimed they were nowhere near accurate and that public funders should be aware of the real situation.
The most outspoken of these was councillor Brent Goodwin who was a long-term councillor, voted out in 2010 and re-elected last October.
Ten years ago consultant Ken Scadden was commissioned to review Aratoi and made mention of visitor figures attributed to the Wairarapa Arts Centre - the forerunner of Aratoi.
It had been estimated 80,000 people a year were visiting the arts centre and that would rise to 100,000 by the year 2000.
Mr Scadden said "such figures were at best courageous and at worst foolhardy" and had left a "very damaging legacy" for Aratoi.
He recommended a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) on visitor numbers to be written into a service delivery agreement between Masterton District Council and Aratoi but this has not eventuated.
One of the reasons for scepticism over Aratoi's electronic counts has been the sheer number of visitors claimed when compared with other Wairarapa attractions such as Pukaha Mount Bruce, which records 35,000 visitors a year, The Wool Shed (7000) and Cobblestones (3500).
