Visitor research is a growing interest amongst cultural heritage sites in Hungary, and I was very pleased to be invited to give a presentation and workshop at the KÖME (Cultural Heritage Managers' Association) conference in Budapest. The talented folks at grafacity.eu did visual recording of the presentations which is a great way to capture key points in a concise and memorable way.
Key points from my presentation were:
We need to know who our visitors are, and what they think:
- To meet accreditation / museum registration requirements
- To plan exhibitions, events etc which visitors will be interested in
- To make the museum / cultural heritage site a place which people want to visit: local residents and tourists
- This will benefit the museum / cultural heritage site (more visitors = more income) and the local area (more visitors spending money in shops and cafes)
- All this makes the museum / cultural heritage site more sustainable and an important part of the local community
The workshop covered practical and straightforward methods to find out who our visitors are and what they think, how to analyse the data and then how to use it in management planning.