Keywords

1 Introduction

Museums attempt to accumulate multifarious events of politics, religion and some other social movements’ that led the world over the centuries. It offers a profound learning experience and brings our past alive with records of extensive historical items and collections. Hence the distinctive characteristic of museums is that it constantly secure the present with past (Rahman, 2012). The quality of tourists’ experience in museums often regard as mesmerizing. The Royal Museum of Greenwich and The Ironbridge Gorge Museum are the two leading heritage museums in the UK. Though geographically these two museums are located in distinctive areas but they two experienced a substantial growth in tourists’ arrivals. Therefore, it is vital to have a timeous and proper management system and plan in place to conserve the attractions and to meet its ever increasing tourism potential. This work engaged constructively in evaluating management strategic plans in place in respect of the two case studies and how these strategies and plan can be developed to continue the upward trend of its attractions and increase its tourism prospects further. During the process of carrying out the research, the researcher understood that the critical analysis of management strategies will not only enable the researcher to put forward ways and ideas for benefiting two particular heritage sites, but this would also enable the researcher to acquire necessary knowledge in this respect.

The aim of the research is to examine the tourism and museum management strategies and planning perspectives of The Royal Museum of Greenwich and The Ironbridge Gorge Museum as heritage sites.

  • Objectives:

  1. 1.

    To identify the Management and planning strategies used by The Royal Museum of Greenwich and The Ironbridge Gorge Museum.

  2. 2.

    To compare the management and planning, and heritage presentation and interpretation approaches of the two museums and heritage conservation.

  3. 3.

    To understand how visitors to the two museums experience and perceive the heritage presentation and interpretation.

2 Tourist Experience in Museums

The aim of the museum is to “foster an informed appreciation of the rich and diverse we have inherited”, this manifest that museum is a real, authentic, and genuine place of experience (Herbert, 1995: 45). Prentice (1995) described museum is a quite experiential product which facilitate feeling and knowledge. Further to the discussion, Otto and Ritchie (1996: 167) stated that ‘the ‘experience’ of leisure and tourism can be described as the subjective mental state felt by participants”. In accordance with Otto & Ritchie, a museum can be the experiential form of consumption that emerged the two qualities to characterise the successful management: visitors’ responsiveness and creativity (Lord, Dexter, & Lord, 1997). In addition, the competitive atmosphere and pressure on attendance signify the importance to pursue new ideas and method from a different discipline (Benediktsson, 2004).

Indeed museum provides experiences, ideas, and satisfaction from the authentic objects of nature, science, history, and the arts as museums are closely linked with leisure sectors (Kotler & Kotler, 1998). On the principle of ‘educations for the uneducated masses’ (Bennett, 1995) and ‘cabinets of curiosities’ (Weill, 1995), the most primitive museums were originated to establish to … “raise the level of public understanding … to elevate the spirit of it’s visitors … to refine and uplift the common taste” (Weill, 1997: 257). In this context, Freedman (2000) stated that museum should play a mediator role of information and knowledge for it’s users.

Museum is a unique place that shapes identities and developed from being a source of knowledge and objects to having a “… multifaceted, outward looking role as hosts who invite visitors inside to wonder, encounter and learn’ (Schauble, Leinhardt, & Martin, 1997: 3). In fact, people experience intense feelings when they visit museums as they become close to something that is woven into the fabric of our history (Waxman, 1996). Moore (1997) stated museums are the exciting place to visit for leisure and entertainment. Kelly (2008) came up with a decision after conducting a survey on Australian museum visitors that tourists visited museums for new experiences, worthwhile leisure, learning and entertainment. McKercher (2004) survey revealed that museums are the most popular tourists’ attraction as it is a part of the universal cultural system for preaching knowledge and experiences. It provides a unique sense of particular time and place that makes it a distinguish tourist destination (Graburn, 1989; Tufts & Milne, 1999).

However, despite the prosperous prospects of museums in the realm of the tourism industry, the museums are devouring some problems. Brown (1997), Garnet (2002) have identified funding cut is a problem that causes limited resources requiring the museum to operate on commercial basis. Apart from a commercial operations, the multifaceted characteristic of museum encourage to be responsive on social and environmental issues i.e. population, sustainability, social justice and indigenous rights (Bradburne, 1998; Brown, 1997). Furthermore, the exhibition, loaning collection and visitation have been affected by some global factors such as terrorism, climate change and global warming (Kelly, 2008).

In addition, with the advancement of technology and availability of other leisure choices, museums are now facing new demands (Cameron, 2003). Museums cannot be mere supplies of information rather a centre for providing knowledge and other educational and information tools that enable tourists to explore their own ideas and reach their own conclusion (Bradburne, 1998; Hein, 1997). Indeed, museums are having a diverse range of tourists every day and became a universal part of our cultural system (Herreman, 1988). In particular, according to Kirchenblatt-Gimblett (1998): 132), “Tourism needs destination, and museums are premier attractions”.

3 Methodology

The research has been carried out through adopting mixed methodology. In doing so, the in-depth interviews of the employees and a questionnaire survey were persuaded to understand both sides opinion. To conduct this research the researcher adopted an interpretivist theoretical view which presents the research in a qualitative methodology. The Interpretivist theoretical view delivers the researcher an ‘insider’s’ view to the key issue (Veal, 2006: 37).

In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with the people who work at the two museums and questionnaire survey with visitors was also conducted. In addition, the current management strategies and future plan in respect of ‘The Royal Museum of Greenwich and The Ironbridge Gorge Museum’ were examined with a view to seeking ways to enhance tourism prospects of this heritage site.

The visitors and museums officials were selected to conduct this research. In developing the strategy of the research, the researcher decided to select the representatives through a ‘purposeful’ sampling method for qualitative data which Veal (2006: 295) defined as “individual selected on the basis of a key criterion”. The interviewees were contacted through email (see Appendix 3) and with the consent of interviewees, the meetings took place at their convenient time and place as it was necessary to let them feel comfortable to gain more information. In a familiar environment, everyone feels secure, open and willing to talk. This results in the researcher to have longer time and more information which might not have been possible in any other place.

On the other hand, understanding visitors’ expectorations and motivations, a visitor’s survey was conducted through distributing questionnaire survey to the visitors at the site. A random approach to sampling visitor’s survey adopted in this study. Considering the costs and time, the random sampling at the visitors’ site was appropriate.

4 The Royal Museum of Greenwich

The Royal Museum of Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian line. The UNESCO in 1997 has awarded the ‘Maritime Greenwich’ (The Royal Observatory, The Queen house and Cutty Sark) as one of the outstanding value heritage site (Greenwich, 2012) (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Aerial view of The Royal Museum of Greenwich (Source Greenwich 2012)

Full size image

From Fig. 2 it can be seen that the RMG has been structured with five key positions at the key management decision level with several other positions at the lower management level to implement the whole operation of the management.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Management structure of The Royal Museum of Greenwich (own work)

Full size image

Under the Planning and Compulsory Act 2004, the local authorities are required to prepare Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) through taking into account of national and regional planning guidance and strategies (Act 2004).

With an aim to ‘stimulating curiosity’ the Museum Corporate Plan for 2009–2014 directing to shape the museum’s aspirations to let the people understand of British economic, social, political, imperial and maritime history and its consequences in the world today in a way that place the people stories at the heart of interpretation and link it to the contemporary issues as such people feel sense of the value and sense of the ownership (Corporate Strategic Plan 2009–2014).

5 The Ironbridge Gorge Museum

The Ironbridge Gorge Museum is one of the first groups of UK 7 heritage sites to be awarded by UNESCO as an outstanding value ‘World Heritage Site’ in 1986. The Museum has a unique contribution to the birth of industrial revolution of the 18th century which shaped a new era (Ironbridge, 2012). The long history, rich collections and contribution to the intellectual development described as one of “the most extraordinary district in the world” (Ironbridge, 2012) (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3
figure 3

Coalbrookdale by Night taken by Philip de Loutherbourg, 1801. Courtesy The Science Museum, London

Full size image

6 Management Structure

The fig. 4 shows that the IGM has three management positions at key strategic management level along with other positions at other levels to conduct the whole operation of the museum. The Management structure of the IGM are designed below.

Fig. 4
figure 4

Management hierarchy of Ironbridge Gorge museums (own work)

Full size image

As an autonomous body ‘the Ironbrige Gorge Museums Trust’ takes its own decision and it intends to increase the visitors to 600,000 including an additional 4000 educational visitors. To achieve operational excellence and long-term business sustainability, the essence of working with private and public partnership to explore tourism opportunities and capitalize on tourism potential in order to generate tourism economy of West Midlands (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
figure 5

Large Kilns at Coalport China Museum (Courtesy by the Ironbrige Gorge Museum Trust)

Full size image

7 Respondents’ Characteristics

The researcher aimed for 60 people and respondents were 60 from two museums. Respondents in the survey are characterised by a number of aspects such gender, age, country of origin and occupation and in order to classify the visitors by socio-demographic background specific questions were asked. Information on visitors’ background is important as it helps to classy respondents as well as to understand the visitors’ perception on tourist sites (Lie et al., 1987).

Table 1 Age group and gender
Full size table
  1. (a)

    Age Group and Gender

The Table 1 that the both museums have higher numbers of female visitors than its male visitors. In case of age group, respondents’ age between 45 and 65 years old constitute 37 and 35% respectively in RMG & IGM which are the highest among other groups followed by the age group 25–44 years old with faintly lower percentage i.e. 35 and 34% in contrast to the former group. The 65 years old group constitute the lowest percentage in both museums. This may be owing to their physical illness, not having a good company to visit or finding library more convenient than museums (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6
figure 6

Visitors country of origin

Full size image
  1. (b)

    Visitors’ Country of Origin

Due to convenient geographical location, RMG receives a substantial number of both domestic and overseas tourists. Despite being located in a far distance from London, the IGM attracts a larger number of domestic tourists 89% for its heritage recognition. In attracting international tourists, RMG receives more than double in percentage than IGM overseas tourists. There are many factors i.e. museum marketing, museum familiarity, and product portfolios that may cause the difference in attracting overseas tourist to the museums (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7
figure 7

Occupation of the visitors

Full size image
  1. (c)

    Occupation

Most respondents in both RMG and IGM were service holder or self-employed constituted 37 and 45% of visitors to the museums. The retired group shared equal percentage 29 & 29% in two museums. However, the both museums receive a large number of students representing 34 and 31% of tourists. Since most museums cater as a learning centre, this percentage of student visitors has justified the purpose of museums creation.

8 Visitors Behaviour/Activities

The visitors’ behaviour or activities are mostly determined by the purpose of tourists visits and the activities available in the area to engage visitors. Reasons for visiting the both museums presented in Fig. 8.

Fig. 8
figure 8

Main reasons for visiting museums

Full size image

Black (2005) stated that visitors’ engagements in the museums are determined by the availability of special interest of the visitors. Respondents in this survey were asked to answer their reasons for visiting the museums. Most respondents found heritage attraction a major interest in visiting the museums and constituted 32% in RMG & 30% in IGM as heritage tourists. Museum itself an attraction and receives 20% of tourists in RMG & 27% of tourists in IGM for being merely museums. Educational tourists are large in numbers in both museums and represent 23 & 35% of tourists for educational purpose. Another group of tourists believed that curiosity made them to visits to the museums and this group constitute 13 & 20% of tourist in both RMG & IGM respectively.

9 Attitude/Motivation of Tourists

Visitors’ attitude or motivation of tourists were gathered through asking specific questions tabulated below in order to understand visitors’ satisfaction, evaluation and their experience in the museums. A questionnaire survey was designed and distributed to the visitors in both museums allowing them to tick as appropriate from a range of choices.

  1. (a)

    Visitors Perception (IGM)

The following Table 2 presents the overall perception of the visitors in IGM museum.

Table 2 Visitors perceptions (IGM)
Full size table

The results presented above reflected overall perception of the visitors in the IGM. The tourists’ perceptions of the museum varied to the museum setting. Their perceptions measured in the scale of strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree and disagree. The overall response was satisfactory for the museum except a large number of tourists (45%) showed their disagreement in particular issue i.e. combination of different technology for tourists to use in the museum while 35 and 10% of tourists strongly agreed and agreed respectively to the use of technology in the museum satisfactory. It is noticeable that 10% of the tourists disagreed with the museum provides material deeper and hidden meaning related to the historical events while 20% of them strongly agreed and 70% agreed with the argument. On the question of the museum visit was how informative 94% of the tourists strongly agreed and 6% agreed. A similar pattern is also noted on the basic information was needed covered by the museum (93% strongly agreed and 7% agreed). It is clear that 15% strongly agreed and 85% agreed in regards to museum exhibition is clearly explained to them. Overall 30 and 70% strongly agreed and agreed respectively on museum being interactive. It also noticeable that 88% agreed and 10% strongly agreed to recommend others to visit while 2% differs to that of opinion.

Table 3 Visitors perception (RMG)
Full size table
  1. (b)

    Visitors Perception (RMG)

Table 3 presented tourists’ perception about the offerings available at the RMG. A similar pattern of tourists’ perception is also noted here. A large number of tourists 20% felt museum lacked combination different technology while 15 and 65% strongly agreed and agreed respectively. Unlike IGM, all responded of RMG would recommend others (10% strongly agreed and 90% agreed). A larger number of tourists here at RMG found materials have deeper and hidden meaning related to the historical events.

  1. (c)

    Motivation

The tourists were asked to answer the following question to gain a greater understanding of their level of satisfaction (Table 4).

Table 4 Motivation of the visitors for IGM
Full size table

The respondents were asked to rate their experience on the scale of Highly interesting, Interesting, Good and Poor. In respect of RMG 50% of its tourists found it’s exhibitions as highly interesting, 40% of them rated as interesting while 10% tourists rated the exhibitions of the RMG as ‘Good’. In regards to IGM, the exhibitions rated 65 per cent interesting while 30% Highly Interesting and 5% as Good. Other respondents scored museums experience with RMG 25% highly interesting & 60% Good while 15% said museum experience as a whole was good. The tourist ranked 25% Highly Interesting, 60% Interesting and 10% Good at IGM experience.

On the other hand, on the question what recommend would they put forward. At RMG, 80% of its visitors recommended using more signs while 5% recommended to use more technology and another 5% said museum should improve other services. The visitors at IGM, 60% of its visitors recommended using more technology and 30% said more exhibitions and collections should be displayed.

The researcher identified four objectives for the present study.

Objective 1: To identify the Management and planning strategies used by The Royal Museum of Greenwich and The Ironbridge Gorge Museum.

  • In terms of management and planning strategies of RMG & IGM, the researcher examined interviewees’ opinion towards the museums management and Strategic Plan adopted by the museums. The RMG & IGM have a mission statement that includes promoting educational programmes and attracts a large number of tourists through improving visitors experience at the museums. Though the tourism prospects of the museums justified the commodification of the museums services but this sparked debate within the heritage research field as heritage fabrics comes under the stain. Despite the fact that tourism generates local economy, it is also important to highlight the areas where maintenance of the older building in their original conditions required or conserving them through restoration and repair (Interviewee 1). McManus (1997) stated the economic prospects of heritage places generate funds to conserve the heritage fabrics and motivating local and tourists to promote conservation.

    On the other hand, effective marketing strategy empowers the museums to promote the sites worldwide. Adopting successful marketing strategy for the museums is important for economic sustainability. This requires espousing a coherent marketing strategy through administrative arrangements (Interviewee 2). Kotler and Kotler (1998) urged the museums to become more committed to public services, to design more educational programmes and to create the museum as a lively place where tourists can find pleasure and delight. Though the IGM marketing strategy is not comprehensive due to lack of funding, however, the RMG is in a better position in this regard. The both museums pursue a strategy to conserve the heritage settings and to look after the tourism prospects. The museum management team monitor the progress and review the management plan periodically.

Objective 2: To compare the management and planning, and heritage presentation and interpretation approaches of the two museums.

  • Figures 2 and 4 contain the museum management structure provided by the interviewees as part of the interview process. The management structures of the museums are reliant on the size of the museums. The three key positions of IGM along with chief executive and deputy executive have a vital role in the strategic management plan. On the other hand, the RMG has a higher number of positions (Five positions) in the strategic management group. This is because, the size of the museum and it’s services and flow of tourists.

    In regards to visitors’ management and interpretation of the heritage, the interviewees recognised the appeal of the interpretations and the importance of variation in interpretation. Tilden (2007) view that interpretation must touch visitors personal experience, thoughts, hopes, a way of life to connect their ‘ego’ that makes interpretation interesting and appealing to the visitors. Furthermore, the heavy competition with other competitors emerged the museums to pursue easy and understandable interpretation as both museums have appealing stories to tell (Interview 1 & 2). Therefore the museums are required to demonstrate the innovative design, creative thinking and scientific discovery of the museums in their own historical context (Interview 1). The interviewees of both museums believed that successful interpretation depends on visitors’ satisfaction. However, visitors satisfaction achieve when interpretation given by the museums are full of enjoyment and provides material deeper and hidden meaning related to the historical events that convey the feeling of being interactive (see Table 3). Bath (2006) recommended technology can be a powerful means to make the interpretation effective to the tourists.

Objective 3: To understand how visitors to the two museums experience and perceive the heritage presentation and interpretation.

  • The questionnaire survey was designed in part to enable issues in heritage museums sites to be looked at from the visitors’ point of view to reflect the visitors’ expectation in the museums. Visitors of the museums evaluate their visits in line with their expectations. The tourism has immense contribution to the Greenwich and Ironbridge in respect of developing the local economy. The global influence of tourism has been dictating to shape the heritage sites in accordance with tourists’ expectation.

    It is true that different tourists foster different perceptions and it was seen in this study the decision to visit the two museums depend on different factors such as motivation and socio-demographic attributes. A substantial proportion of tourists come to the museums where education, museum interest, heritage interest and curiosity are the key reasons for visiting. The survey shows that the RMG holding higher percentage in heritage interest and education. On the other hand, the IGM receives a higher proportion of tourists who comes to the museums for curiosity and interest for this particular museum’s history. The IGM had an outstanding role in the industrial revolution and some collections of artefacts in IGM those have been portraying glorious past of the Britain foster visitors curiosity towards this museum. Considering the socio-demographic background of the visitors, both museums receive a large number of tourists aged from 25 to 45 years old. The RMG seems popular to those age group than IGM. The reasons for the varied percentage of visitors in two museums, the researcher believed that historical background, consumption of cultural attraction of the museums. The Royal Observatory of RMG is one of the popular tourists attractions receives a substantial proportion of the museum tourists.

    Despite the differences in visitors’ perceptions, it is appropriate for the heritage museums management to ensure that greater care and importance should be given in the areas of interests from the visitors’ perspective. The survey shows the fluctuation of tourist interest to museum products which represent the tourists’ expectations towards the museums. The lowest percentage in some areas of museum services shown in the survey highlight the urgency that these areas are required to be looked into with greater care and improved accordingly to increase the number of diverse range of tourists and to fulfil their satisfaction. This is because; museums today became a universal part of our cultural system (Herreman 1988). In particular, according to Kirchenblatt-Gimblett (1998: 132) “Tourism needs destination, and museums are premier attractions”.

10 Conclusion

Despite some limitations throughout the research, this research has achieved its aims and enabled to draw conclusions on the research objectives. Firstly, there is a need to pursue a long-term and holistic management plan that allows the museums ‘Ideal’ level of usage for a site through sustainable tourism which also ensures genuine engagement of local people as well as the visitors. Secondly, regular review and monitor the progress of a site and its conservatory process is also necessary. Thirdly, greater care should be given in understanding visitors’ perceptions as this is vital to increase the number of satisfied tourists and extend the museum’s tourism market through ‘word of mouth’ (Spalding, 2010) of those tourists. Fourthly; a museum should no more confine itself by portraying only as a mere centre of information but it should extend its operation to become a centre of knowledge, entertainment, and leisure and above all as a centre of excellence. For example, Liverpool museum can be considered to be an example of centre of excellence which became an agent of social change. Fifthly and finally the Management of a museum should give emphasis on utilizing the extensive use of modern technology in it’s the whole operation including the area of marketing.

In respect of the above mentioned two specific museums, it was observed that the convenient location of RMG and it’s better financial solvency compared to IGM put RMG in a better position than IGM in regards to it’s exposure as a symbol of heritage tourism. However, it is important for both museums to widen their positive image and identity worldwide and achieve international status and in this respect; the advantage of modern technology should be taken to its full extent. In the case of developing museums’ image, these two museums should incorporate the strategy to organise international events. Priority should be given to the engagement of local people as well as the visitors in various events. This will develop the local sense of belonging and would no doubt increase the number of day visitors at peak time as well as overnight stay visitors and for this, the management should work closely with local authorities to provide better services. Furthermore, the development of transportation is another important issue from both museums’ tourism perspectives. The IGM is quite far and a time-consuming journey is required from the capital. There is no direct train or bus route to Ironbridge, which is one of the reasons for the museums to receive less number of tourists compared to RMG. Though the RMG is not isolated from London, but there is also no direct bus route for such a popular tourist destination. It is highly important for both museums to work with TFL and Rail services to have easy and affordable transportation services to the destinations. In particular, the IGM can introduce new mode of affordable buses preferably with no rooftop, which would enable the tourists to enjoy the scenic beauty of the Ironbridge. The both interviewees from IGM and RMG managements mentioned that museums incorporated in the management strategy to engage a large number of students through promoting educational programmes. Such programmes should be increased in numbers to continue the upward trend of the museums tourism prospects.