Factors affecting pre-visit destination image: application on the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM)

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate through an empirical research the factors that would attract visitors to heritage and cultural sites as museums applied on the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). The paper aims to study the impact of the proposed attraction features learning/knowledge, museum facilities, fun/entertainment and socializing and accessibility/location on pre-visit destination image. Design/methodology/approach The author started by a thorough literature review to arrive to the suggested conceptual model, which is tested by adopting a quantitative approach where data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a convenient sample of 300 respondents with 90% response rate and used partial least squares – structure equation modelling using Smart PLS v.3.2.8. Findings The results show that three of the tested factors were accepted and one was rejected. Practical implications Management of GEM, which will be one of the biggest museums world-wide, can make use of the empirical results of this research to enhance their understanding of the factors that impact pre-visit destination image, and thus, most attract visitors to justify the budget set in this huge project and achieve highest visitation and revenue Originality/value This research deals with a new museum that has not opened its doors yet and will start functioning in late 2020, and thus, the pre-visit image of the museum is not based on previous experience of visitors but rather on secondary sources as messages sent to visitors based on attraction features, while most previous studies dealt with post-visit image of museums