Studying COVID-19 Impacts on Culture: The Case of Public Museums in Greece

Abstract

During the last three years, COVID-19 has had a huge impact on both tourism and culture globally. The function of every kind of cultural activity was inhibited due to curfews in all public spaces, including museums, galleries, monuments, and archeological sites, which were forced to interrupt their operation due to the restrictions that were implemented for the protection of public health. In many cases, also in Greece, museums or archeological sites employed the use of digital systems and social media, always carefully abiding by all the security measures. This study aims to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on public museums in Greece and to pursue possible opportunities in order to improve the museums’ extroversion through the application of new strategies based on ‘New Technologies’. This is achieved through a qualitative methodology with the use of 17 semi-structured interviews to executives of Greek public museums, in order to examine the situation through various aspects, which will reinforce the sustainability of Greece’s cultural domain and its acceptance on the cultural sector. The analysis of data revealed both positive and negative results in this form of investigation.