Visitor Surveys
It goes without saying that the staff of a museum is not only interested in socio-demographic profil of museum goers in general, but especially in the visitors of the own museums. Who are these visitors, what are their motives for visiting the museum or the special exhibition, how much time do they spend in the museum, are they satisfied with the permanent or temporary collection and museum facilities? What is the share of single visitors, couples, families, groups and school children in the total number of visits? What is the opinion of different kinds of visitors about the activities in the museum (such as guided tour, or lectures)?
To answer such questions many big museums carry out quantitative and qualitative studies of their visitors. The results of such studies are, however, seldom published. They are mostly used in the marketing policies of the museums themselves.
A visitor study can be too expensive for middle-sized and small museums. That’s why the Netherlands Museum Association took initiative for the launching of the so called Museummonitor in the beginning of 21st century. A professional research firm conducts visitor surveys for the Members of the Association for a reasonable price: between 1300 and 7000 Euros, depending on the size of the sample. Every year about 40 middle-sized and small museums make use of the Museummonitor. As the composition of the visitors of an individual museum doesn’t change rapidly, the museums taking part in this project differ from one year to another.
See: http://www.museumvereniging.nl/Landingspagina/Museumberichten2011/nr6juni2011/Museummonitor.aspx
The general results of the monitor and the sociological analysis of these results are also being published, albeit a few years later.
For the most recent publication see:
Letty Ranshuisen, Museummonitor 2009. IJzeren wetten en trends. http://www.lettyranshuysen.nl/pdf/2010_MM%202009.pdf
GERMANY
In 2005 the Institute for Museum Research in Germany published the results of several visitor surveys conducted at the State Museums in Berlin.
SERBIA
Center for Study in Cultural Development, Republic of Serbia, has obtained information on museum audiences through two lines of research: 1) a survey on a representative sample of visitors of regular museum programs and exhibitions; 2) visitors of museum festivals. Since general population surveys have shown that museums are among the least visited cultural institutions, while museum festivals attract a lot of visitors, several studies were conducted in order to compare people who visit museums exclusively during festivals with those who visit museums both during and after festivals. Beside socio-demographic variables we examined attitudes towards museums, following the lead of a prominent theory on attitude-behavior relationship (theory of planned behavior [Ajzen, 1985]).
Further information: http://srv.zaprokul.org.rs:55005/Article/Details?articleId=1105
SPAIN
Audience Research. Visitor Surveys. February 2024
Report by the Ministry of Culture. Spain
Audience Research Visitor Surveys
In Spain, the information about the audience is obtained from:
a) Data supplied directly by museums, although not obtained from visitor surveys
b) Data obtained from population surveys
Regarding the first (a), the Division for Statistics and Studies provides the following reference:
The Statistic on Museums and Museum Collections in Spain. This statistic includes, among other estimates, data on the number of visits, foreign visitors, ticket prices, education programmes, activities, equipment, etc. The data are provided on a two-year basis by those museums that respond to the questionnaire. The directory used is the Census of Museums and Museum Collections.
Statistic on Museums and Museum Collections in Spain in CULTURABase
https://www.cultura.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano/estadisticas/cultura/mc/culturabase/museos-y-colecciones-museograficas/resultados-museos.html
Statistic on Museums and Museum Collections in Spain. Results summary 2022 (available in English)
In relation to the second (b), the data from Museums and Museum Collections in Spain are complemented, in terms of cultural participation, with the results obtained from the Survey on Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain.
Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain in CULTURABase
Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain. Synthesis of results 2021-2022 (available in English)
Additional references in the website of the Ministry of Culture of Spain:
Yearbook of Culture Statistics
https://www.cultura.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano/estadisticas/cultura/mc/aec.html
Culture Statistics
https://www.cultura.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano/estadisticas.html
SWEDEN
Visitors surveys – Sweden
Statistics Sweden (SCB) has been commissioned by the Swedish Arts Council to carry out a comprehensive survey of the Swedish population’s cultural habits. The previous report Cultural Welfare 1976–99 (Swedish Arts Council 2002) has, in terms of its content and structure, formed the basis for the latest report, which covers cultural habits over a 30- year period: 1976–2006.
The statistical data has been taken from the Living Conditions Surveys (ULF) which SCB has carried out annually since 1975. The purpose of ULF is to monitor trends in the population in several welfare areas.
The results of the ULF surveys largely confirm the already well-known major differences in cultural habits between men and women, young and old, native Swedes and immigrants, blue-collar and white-collar workers, urban and rural residents, and so on.
Visits to art galleries or art exhibitions have increased by 7 percentage points for women and 6 percentage points for men. 39 percent of women and 32 percent of men make such visits. Once again, older people account for a large part of the increase, and the gap between them and the younger age groups remains very high. There has been a slight increase among native-born Swedes with native-born Swedish parents, while there has been no change among people of foreign birth. We can also see that the population in the cities has pulled away from other regions by another few percentage points.
Visits to non-art-related museums have not changed to any great degree across the population as a whole during the period 1982–2006. However, among young people, visits have dropped significantly by 17 percentage points. Among older people, there has been a rise of 10 percentage points. The difference between the age groups now appears to have evened off.
Cultural activities decrease as the level of disability increases. Visiting the theatre, concerts, art galleries, museums and particularly the cinema is extremely uncommon among people who are disabled or severely disabled, compared with people with normal mobility. However, with the exception of theatre visits, the percentages increase considerably for disabled people after gender and age standardisation, although they remain much lower than for those in the population with normal mobility.
The report New Cultural Habits can be downloaded here:
http://www.kulturradet.se/upload/kr/publikationer/2008/nya_kulturvanor_del2.pdf
(For text in English see page 343 and forward)
List of related tables in the report:
Tables A – People aged 16–74, 1976–2006
Table A2a. Visited art gallery or museum. People aged 16–74 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1976–2006. Percent......................................................148
Table A2b. Visited art gallery or museum. Men aged 16–74 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1976–2006. Percent......................................................149
Table A2c. Visited art gallery or museum. Women aged 16–74 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1976–2006. Percent..........................................150
Tables B – People aged 16–84, 1982–2006
Table B4a. Visited art gallery or art exhibition. People aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent..........................................190
Table B4b. Visited art gallery or art exhibition. Men aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent..........................................191
Table B4c. Visited art gallery or art exhibition. Women aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent..........................................192
Table B5a. Visited a museum (non-art). People aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent......................................................193
Table B5b. Visited a museum (non-art). Men aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent............................................................194
Table B5c. Visited a museum (non-art). Women aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent......................................................195
Table B6a. Visited art gallery or museum. People aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent......................................................196
Table B6b. Visited art gallery or museum. Men aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent......................................................197
Table B6c. Visited art gallery or museum. Women aged 16–84 who, in their leisure time, carried out the activity in the past 12 months, 1982–2006. Percent..........................................198
THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands' Museum Association (Nederlandse Museumvereniging) has initiated the so called Museummonitor.
