Museum Tourism in the Post-Pandemic Period: Problems and Prospects of Development

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify modern forms and methods of interaction between a museum and a tourist visitor in new socio-cultural and economic contexts. Museum as a socio-cultural institution is subject to changes occurring in society and reflects in its activities those rules, demands and values that are relevant for a particular period of history. The spread of market relations in the socio-cultural sphere and the processes of digitalization, accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, are directly reflected in the activities of museums. Today, the museum is transforming from a creator and interpreter of scientific knowledge and a guardian of cultural values into an industry that creates a special environment for visitors. Reorientation towards the individual visitor as the main consumer of the museum tourism product poses new issues and challenges for museums. Thus, in the context of individualization of consumer demand, the issue of “including” the museum in the economy of impressions with its emphasis on emotional information, personal experiences of a person and creation of his/her personal experience becomes relevant. Within the framework of the communication approach, the authors of the article investigate the practices of using the basic principles of the impression economy to create a competitive product and build a dialogue between the tourist and the museum on its basis. The latter becomes important in the light of the formation of the visitor’s loyalty to the cultural identity of the city and the region where the museum is located. The application of the system approach allowed to identify general and private practices of museum service in the conditions of a new model of consumption, oriented to meet the increasing demands of the individual tourist. The materials of the article can not only be used in the theoretical and applied activities of museums, but also serve as an analytical basis for regional and municipal state structures in the development of effective programmes and strategies for tourism development.