I hope there is room for one more point of view in the visitors vs.
tourist discussion....

To predict behavior or anticipate the wants of a visitor, a term
like" tourist" is virtually useless and "guest" is totally useless.
At least with "tourist" one knows a visitor is not local and that has
both strategic and behavioral implications.   It will embrace from
60% to 90% of all visitors to the world's best known museums.  The
tourist literature doesn't help much either since their definition of
a tourist is someone whose principal purpose of travel is for
leisure; yet many non-local visitors to museums are convention
attenders or business travellers who take the  time  to visit a
museum while in a destination city.

Distinguishing  between local visitors and tourist visitors seems
more important to me.  With tourist visitors I know there is a good
chance the current visit will be a once-only visit.  For such
visitors, time is restricted and it is likely they want to see the
best the museum has to offer in three hours or less.  With the
possible exception of museum professionals, this is true even of
tourists who treasure "quiet contemplation" and regularly revisit
their home museums.  Museum visiting is one of an array of
destination activities that attracts even the most intellectual
among us to a destination city.  It need not even be among the most
important motives.  Based on the research I have done or seen, about
half of all non-local visitors to a well-known museum fall in this
category.

For about a third of tourist-visitors, there is more interest in
obtaining evidence of a visit for the folks back home and/or for
their own edification than in viewing the collection; in fact, in
museums known outside their own precincts, that one-third may not
even enter the galleries but be satisfied with something from the
shop that "signals" their visit.  This is a sort of secular
pilgrimage and has been well documented by anthropologists
(e.g., MacCannell, Graburn)

Quite a few more tourist/visitors wish to view the one or few items
for which a museum is most known (e.g., the Mona Lisa at the Louvre,
Nightwatch at the Rijksmuseum)  but are happy to leave the Museum
immediately once that has been accomplished.  These may dominate the
"streaker" segment Kersti (or George) have identified in previous
Museum-L comments on this topic.

I am probably in the minority among Museum-L participants but I think
all three tourist types make legitimate use of museums and deserve
equal consideration.  What do you think?

bob kelly
Robert F. Kelly, Faculty of Commerce
and Museum of Anthropology,
(604) 822-8346  Fax: 822-8521

University of British Columbia
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