Beyond the authentic taste: The tourist experience at a food museum restaurant

This study investigates the factors influencing food experiences perceived by food tourists in the context of a food museum and its associated restaurant. A qualitative exploratory approach was employed, using Chinese tourists visiting Hangzhou Cuisine Museum in Zhejiang province. This research finds that food tourists look for knowledge accumulation and gastronomic experiences when visiting a food museum and restaurant complex, and each experience is formed by both tourist and setting factors. The findings highlight the significant and more complex engagement of setting factors in the museum restaurants. The institutionalised characteristics of museums are equally expected within the in-house restaurants, and social trust in the museum along with external factors that verify authentic representation of the museum contributed to the perceived authenticity of the food tourist's dining experience. This paper discusses broad implications for food experience design at food museums and restaurants as emerging tourism attractions.     

Beyond authenticity and commodification

Authenticity and commodification are central to academic debates in tourism. Previous analyses suggest that the commercialization of local identities leads to negative consequences. Based on a long-term study in Eastern Indonesia, this paper examines authenticity from three perspectives: government, tourists, and villagers. While the former two reflect views highlighted in the literature, the villagers’ interpretation is different: tourism brings a sense of pride and identity and also a political resource to manipulate. Seen in this context, the debates about authenticity should examine how the notion is articulated, by whom and for what purposes, to reveal in what circumstances cultural tourism leads to positive responses and empowerment.     

Consuming symbolism: marketing D-Day and Normandy

This exploratory study examines experience engineering at select tourist sites of the D-Day landing area in Normandy, France. Using Holt’s 1995 typology of symbolic consumption as an interpretive frame, a number of significant museums, cemeteries, gun batteries, beaches and plinths were examined. Interactions with the public at these sites including the introspection of five academics were compiled, compared and interpreted. The experiences of D-Day visitors were then considered in relation to the range of consumption metaphors afforded by Holt’s model. The results are consistent with Holt’s explanation of symbolic consumption. These rich and nuanced examples of experiential consumption are typified by the four consumption metaphors of Holt’s model; namely, Experience, Integration, Play and Classification. By doing this the widespread practise, scale and techniques of experience engineering by site managers/curators is evident. The differing and inconsistent staged authenticity by stakeholders and curators invites implicational consideration.     

Heritage Tourism in the 21st Century: Valued Traditions and New Perspectives

The present article uses the example of the Alta Museum to discuss how museums have become dependent on tourism as a necessary source of income. This dependency has often been regarded as a challenge to the scholarly quality of the exhibits. The article argues that the involvement in tourism has less impact on what is represented by the museum and more on how the museum needs to represent the exhibition and its context. The article discusses the possible conflicts and contradictions between the traditional ideology of museums and modern tourism. The Alta Museum is then analysed in order to demonstrate how the museum is involved in a tourism system in which location is vital. The last part of the article analyses the Alta Museum in relation to the concepts of McDonaldisation and Disneyization. This analysis reveals the importance for museums to adapt to modes of productions that are familiar to international tourists. Museums thus become spaces for having a ‘good time’.     

The convergence process in heritage tourism

The theoretical background behind heritage tourism is conventionally categorized in terms of two stages: the demand and supply side approaches. This has resulted in a fragmented and usually conflicting framework. The purpose of this paper is to devise a model, which will substantiate the existence of both a continuum and a lateral relationship between the contrasting theoretical approaches to heritage tourism. The value added proffered here stems from the incorporation of authenticity as a linking device in each of the two approaches, unifying them into a single theoretical paradigm. The role of authenticity as a contemporary marketing tool, on tourism motivation and the image of the attraction is shown to be pivotal.     

Proposing a sustainable marketing framework for heritage tourism

This study tests a sustainable marketing protocol for heritage tourism institutions. The marketing plans of 20 museums across the United States are examined to grasp the empirical reality of the proposed model. The model is crafted along strategic marketing criteria, including measures such as environment analysis, level of local community involvement, partnership, and maintenance of traditional preservation-based objectives of the museums. A gap between the philosophical underpinnings of the proposed model and the existing marketing strategies is found. It is noted that the contemporary museum ethos in many regions of the United States is centered on short term plans and current survival. Additionally, regardless of locations, funding and short-termism dictate the core elements of all marketing plans. Overall, the results indicate that dedicated efforts and more awareness are needed to sustain the core purpose of contemporary museums. Using an applied approach, this study offers a unique and realistic perspective to a conceptually drawn framework. The results enhance the marketing literature, offer suggestions on how museum marketing plans could include sustainable elements and become part of a sustainable heritage tourism paradigm.     

People with disabilities visit art museums: an exploratory study of obstacles and difficulties

Visits to art museums are a major component of culture and heritage tourism. This study focuses on the obstacles that Israelis with disabilities – 30 people who use wheelchairs or crutches and 15 visually impaired people – face while visiting art museums. The in-depth interviews revealed that people with disabilities are not able to experience the museum as they wish, despite museum efforts toward becoming accessible to all. Participants emphasize the non-physical elements of the museum environment (e.g. staff attitudes and interaction with other visitors), as being major difficulties in achieving a full museum experience. The study shows that visitors often turn the barriers they confront into a difficulty, nevertheless the struggle itself has a negative effect on the visit experience.     

Evaluating museum visitor experiences based on user-generated travel photos

ABSTRACT

This research introduces online travel photos published on social media platforms as a complementary data resource to examine the behavior and experience of museum visitors. The practical value of online travel photos is demonstrated through a case study of popular Hong Kong museums, particularly by using the photo content and metadata available from the Flickr platform. The proposed approach is a generic method for understanding museum visitor behavior and preferences, and supports museum practitioners in developing improved products for visitors. The case study findings are particularly beneficial for tourism managers, especially those in Hong Kong, in promoting and attracting tourists to visit local museums.     

Consuming heritage: Perceived historical authenticity

This paper examines tourists' perceptions of the historical authenticity of The Rocks, Australia, a heritage precinct fashioned by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority. It argues that overall tourists perceive this representation of history as authentic. Gender, income, education level, position in lifecycle, place of residence, and previous visitations to The Rocks were also explored to identify how these variables might shape tourism experiences and subsequent negotiations of authenticity. The overall uncritical “consumption” of the commodified version of history as heritage is regarded as a matter for concern. The commodified environment based upon the rhetoric of Australian nationalism has silenced alternative versions of the past which highlight oppression, racism, and conflict.     

“The only place where people don't judge other people's body”: Obese people's museum experience

This exploratory study was designed to examine obese people's perception of factors affecting their museum-visiting experience. To best capture the experiential aspect, a qualitative research approach was adopted, and 24 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings yielded that the museum experience was hardly affected by the physical appearance and the presence of other patrons, this is contrast to previous studies in tourism related arenas. This is partly due to the realization that museum visitors tend to concentrate on the exhibits, and pay less attention to fellow visitors. Participants related to the “code of behavior” in museums that discourages gazing or explicitly staring at people. However, participants noted constraints and difficulties arising from the interaction between their body size and the physical environment. The study concludes that museums provide obese people with a safescape – a protective zone.     

A study of experience expectations of museum visitors

Visitor studies including studies of experience and expectations of visitors are important for museums in terms of management and development, however few studies have been designed to explore the components of experience expectations for museum visitors. This research tried to analyze the experience expectations of museum visitors. Using content analysis of diaries written by museum visitors, a questionnaire of experience expectations of museum visitors was developed. After a survey with 425 valid returns, factor analysis was used to extract 5 types of experience expectations, which included: easiness and fun, cultural entertainment, personal identification, historical reminiscences, and escapism. Moreover, this research analyzed visitors’ preferences for visiting museums and their demographic factors among different types of experience expectations. Finally, some related discussion and suggestions were proposed.     

Exploring place perception a photo-based analysis

This paper examines the merits of volunteer-employed photography as a technique for investigating perceptions of residents and tourists of a destination. An exploratory study was undertaken in which both groups were asked to photograph features they considered important to their personal experience of the Welsh seaside resort of Aberystwyth. Participants also completed photologs and written questionnaires, which were used to supplement a content analysis of their snapshots. This enabled various comparisons and inferences to be drawn regarding how the town is perceived as a destination and as a place to live. An unexpected finding is that residents and tourists tend to adopt similar ways of “reading” the destination.     

Impact of generativity on museum visitors' engagement,experience, and psychological well-being

The increasing importance of museums has attracted scholars and industry practitioners to focus more on museum tourists. Visiting museums has become a means to meeting the generative needs of tourists. Therefore, this study investigated generativity, defined as guidance and care for the development of the next generation through self-expanding forms, and its impact on engagement, experience, and psychological well-being. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with tourists at the Macau regional art museums to verify and enrich the generativity measurement scale of museum tourists. Subsequently, structural equation modeling was performed on questionnaire data of 416 art museum tourists in Macau. The results revealed that generativity directly affects engagement, experience, and psychological well-being. Moreover, engagement directly affects experience and psychological well-being, and experience directly affects psychological well-being. Additionally, engagement and experience are mediating variables between generativity and psychological well-being. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are provided accordingly.     

Free Time in an Art Museum: Pausing,Gazing and Interacting

Art museums are popular places where people choose to spend free time. Leisure in art museums may be characterized by silence, contemplation, reaction to art, and interaction with other visitors. The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to understand more about the nature of the art museum experience, using as a setting the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) in Vienna, Austria. Between 2006 and 2008, a total of 100 adults who visited this museum engaged in conversational interviews with the researcher. Conversations showed that visits to art museums during free time stimulate complex interactions between visitors and art. Patrons consider art museums to be spaces for visual contemplation and playful leisure behavior, and sites of continued education that can inform our understanding of serious leisure.     

Time,authenticity and photographic storytelling in The Museum of Innocence

ABSTRACT

Although an individual may recollect an event, such remembering is influenced by the wider social environment to which the individual belongs. Heritage tourism research has focused on the active contestation of performances of collective memories through specific material affordances such as photographs and souvenirs. More recent work has also examined the kinds of pictures and objects that people carry with them and use to reassemble memories, practices and even landscapes, thus remaking the materiality of places. However, memories are also reconstructed through intangible practices of storytelling, and the telling of a story can confer added authenticity to a material place. This paper explores these conceptual ideas through an examination of the intertextuality of the novel by Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence which has subsequently been turned into a museum in Istanbul dedicated to the characters depicted in the book. Based upon visual ethnographic fieldwork at the museum we argue that the story of the Museum of Innocence as well as the actual museum help us to understand how conceptualisations of time are interwoven with how we experience and perform authenticity.     

博物馆解说系统的游客期望、使用和评价研究——基于知识需求的分析

博物馆的社会教育功能越来越受到游客和社会的关注,然而,当前我国博物馆解说系统的规划设计在很大程度上忽视了游客的知识需求特征,一定程度上影响了游客的游览体验,并影响到博物馆教育功能的实现.文章以成都金沙博物馆为研究对象,对游客的知识需求和博物馆解说系统期望、解说工具使用,以及游览后的知识获得和解说系统评价进行了分析.结果发现:游客具有较高的知识需求水平,对博物馆解说系统在知识丰富性、知识传递的过程和方式寄予了比较高的期望;游客对知识需求和解说系统的不同期望水平并未对解说工具的使用比例整体上造成明显的影响,然而游客对解说工具的使用满意度在很大程度上影响了他们对知识获得和解说系统的评价;游客的期望只在部分程度上得以实现,而且体现出超过较低期望游客的预期,但未达到较高期望游客要求的特点.在此基础上,文章提出了金沙博物馆解说体系今后需要解决的一些问题.     

Museums: A supply-side perspective

The educational and cultural mandates of museums are being transformed as institutions play an increasingly important part in urban economic development and tourism promotion strategies. In contrast to more common demand-side studies, this paper emphasizes the supply-side by focussing on everyday museum operations. It outlines the competitive responses being adopted by museums in Montreal, Canada, including shifts in sources of revenue, new technologies, labor practices and the development of networks. Study findings show that the restructuring of museum operations raises important questions concerning not only the traditional public mandate of museums, but also on its ability to enhance consumption experiences and to contribute to a diversified tourism product.     

Evaluating museum websites using a combination of decision-making theories

ABSTRACT

The role of museums is very important in cultural and heritage tourism, and a museum website plays an important role in attracting visitors, both physically and online. Therefore, these websites must be evaluated to ensure that their goals are met. However, the evaluation of a website is complex and is often omitted during the website’s life cycle, despite its importance. To simplify this process, this paper presents a framework for evaluating museum websites. The framework, based on an inspection method, is called the inspection evaluation method (IEM). This method uses criteria proposed by several researchers in a review of the different evaluation experiments for museum websites that have previously used an inspection method. IEM, different from all other methods reviewed, uses a combination of an analytic hierarchy process with a technique for the order of preference by similarity to an ideal solution for combining these criteria. The framework was applied to evaluate and rank the websites of five museums known worldwide. This combination uses the advantages of two multi-criteria decision-making theories and reduces their disadvantages.     

Traditions of sustainability in tourism studies

As sustainability has become an important policy issue in tourism, it is arousing growing discussion and criticism, and an increasing need to understand the nature of the limits of growth. This paper analyzes how these limits are approached and evaluated in discussions on a local scale. The purpose is to recognize that behind the different understandings of them lie distinct traditions that are different in their focuses. These are referred to as resource-, activity-, and community-based traditions of sustainability. Further, the relationship between sustainable tourism and sustainable development is critically discussed.     

Testing theory of planned versus realized tourism behavior

This article probes how well one’s plans for doing, buying, and consuming discretionary tourism services relate to what is actually done. Using group level data, it includes an empirical study of hypotheses comparing planned and actual consumption behaviors. The main propositions tested are that realized consumption behaviors are greater in number than planned and that the level of matching between planned and realized actions varies as a function of contingency factors of composition of the tourist group, product experience, and motivations. Data from two large-scale surveys serve to examine the theory. The findings support the hypotheses partially and provide guidance for planning survey research and marketing management strategies.