Turismo e museus: uma reflexão empírica sobre a Região Autónoma da Madeira

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the evolution of guests and visitors to the museums of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (RAM), in the period between 2012 ‑ 2018. By definition, a museum is a non‑profit entity, serving the development of a society. Museums carry out many services such as spreading knowledge, preserving memory, conserving objects for museum research, and by so doing adding value to both tangible and intangible cultural and artistic heritage. Theresearch was based on existing statistics from the National Statistics Institute and the Regional Statistics Office in Madeira. It was found that the global number of visitors increased over the period considered, probably because of tourism though it was not pos‑ sible to demonstrate a direct relationship between tourist flows and the influx of visitors to museums, on the basis of the data available. It was found that the museological reality of RAM,is highly exposed to tourism as occurs in the rest of the national context and so may be subverting the institutional characteristics of a museum