– A study of foreign visitors at the Smithsonian museums

ICOM KYOTO 2019 25 TH GENERAL CONFERENCE

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATION

3RD OF SEPTEMBER, 2019@KYOTO INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTER

AYUMI KAWASOE - FORMER SMITHSONIAN FELLOW (BNL52690@GMAIL.COM)

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INTRODUCTION This presentation reports on a study of foreign visitors at the Smithsonian museums.

Smithsonian Organization and Audience Research (SOAR) to which the presenter used to belong mainly engages in the institutional visitor study, exhibition evaluation and organization research.

The institution accepts four to six million foreign visitors every year, but studies focused on them has not been implemented before.

Therefore, the presenter attempted to verify the characteristics of museum experience of foreign visitors.

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONThe Smithsonian Institution (SI), based in Washington D.C., is the world's largest museum, education and research complex.

It consists of 19 museums, galleries, and the National Zoological Park, and has an annual overall attendance of between 25-30 million.

According to a study conducted in 2015-16, 19% of SI visitors are from overseas. This is up from only 10% in a similar study conducted in 2004 (Smithsonian Institution, 2017a).

In the Smithsonian Strategic Plan 2017-2022, "21st audience engagement" is stated as one of the seven goals they are concentrating on —and in this, global audiences are crucial targets to serve better (Smithsonian Institution, 2017b).

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STUDY PURPOSE, METHODOLOGY and DEFENITION

The purpose of this study is to compare the museum experience of domestic and international visitors at the Smithsonian Institution.

As a research method, a combination of the quantitative analysis of the previous visitor survey (SI-wide survey) and the qualitative analysis of the interview survey is adopted.

International visitors (IV) are defined as visitors who either 1) reside outside of the U.S., are visiting the U.S. and the Smithsonian, 2) have U.S. citizenship but currently live or have lived outside the U.S. for most of their lives, or 3) do not have U.S. citizenship and are temporarily living in the U.S. for several years for the purpose of study and/or work.

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SI-wide surveyThe first ever survey of visitors to the Institution’s museums and the National Zoo across four contiguous seasons conducted by the Smithsonian’s central Office of Visitor Service (OVS) in 2015-16. Using the data of this study, the presenter tries to decipher the characteristics of international visitors. 31,508 visitors (97%) who answered the question about their place of residence are the subjects of this analysis (Figure.1).

SI-wide Entrance Exit Sum

US 13,499 12,628 26,127

International 2,719 2,662 5,381

Sum 16,218 15,290 31,508

Table.1: Number of visitors in sample

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SI-wide survey analysis result Over 140 countries

Top six countries: Canada (12% of IV), Australia (12%), UK (12%), Germany (6%), China (5%) and Brazil (5%)➡Collectively accounted for a half of IV

Male (55% for international vs. 47% domestic)

Visiting alone (24% vs. 16%)

First-time visitors (73% vs. 36%)

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OERThe metric used to measure satisfaction of the visitors' overall experience in their museum visit primarily used by SOAR (Pekarik, 2018).

Respondents were asked to rate their overall experience at the museum, and offered a five-point Likert scale of Poor/Fair/Good/Excellent/Superior.

IV were less likely to choose Superior and more likely to choose Poor, Fair, or Good (PFG) than US (Table2).

Pre-Expectation Post-Experience

US IV US IV

Superior 20 12 23 15

PFG 25 32 24 29

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➡ In what ways the satisfaction of foreign visitors as compared to museum experience of domestic visitors was lower?

Table.2: OER of US and IV

OUTLINE OF INTERVIEW Date and Time: May and June of 2018

Venue: The exits of DC-based Smithsonian museums and the zoo

The procedure of interview:

1. The respondents filled out a brief questionnaire including demographic questions (sex, age and residence) and a question asking which Smithsonian museum he/she had gone to most recently (A) and the OER score they would give to that museum.

2. The interviewer then asked the visitor for their reasoning behind the OER score in (A).

Interview language: English

Random sampling

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A total of 210 interviews (102 IV from 41 different countries and 108 US).

The demographics of participants (Table 2, 3).

All of the interview data were transcribed, divided into domestic or international visitors and sorted by OER (Superior, Excellent, and PFG).

The interview data were coded thematically in NVivo, with a particular focus on what each of the six groups stated as their reason for their OER ratings.

Age 18-29 30-59 60< Total Sex Male Female TotalInternational 34 59 7 100 International 48 52 100US 28 49 23 100 US 44 56 100

Africa 6 North America 5 Europe 29 South America 12Asia 39 Central America 4 Oceania 4 Middle East 1

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Table3. (Only IV)

Table2.

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Superior Excellent PFG（Poor, Fair, Good）

① ② ③

International ④ ⑤ ⑥

Interview Result The foreign visitors’ OER evaluation was affected by the factors such as

1) Degree of interest in the museum

2) Level of achievement of visit purpose

3) Exhibition contents

4) Design familiarity

5) Interactive opportunity

6) Linguistic restriction

7) Time limitation

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1) Degree of interest in the museum

SI has separate museums for different subject area.

➡Whether or not the subject corresponded with the visitor’s preconceived area of interest directly affected the level of satisfaction.

Tourists to Washington D.C. first visit the two major museums (NMNH & NASM) when visiting SI. People who are not interested in the field of science may think that their satisfaction has declined.

”My favorite museum is Louvre because I am interested in art. I feel the museum is important for my kids to learn science and technology. However, this just does not suit to my interest." (PFG: NASM, Mexico, 40s, Female)

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2) Level of achievement of visit purpose

Whether or not the visitors were able to achieve the purpose of visit was also an important factor in determining satisfaction.

The level of satisfaction was high among those who achieved their educational and learning purpose.

“This trip is a part of education, not only for sightseeing and taking photos. I hope my kid to learn something D.C.. I think I could have done both education and sightseeing, that's why ‘Superior’.”(NMNH: Superior, Australia, 40s, Male)

The level of satisfaction was low among those who the particular collections they looked for did not meet their expectation.

“I visited for radical works, but some of the exhibits were being renewed and closed, and the number of exhibits was limited.” (FSG: PFG, Korea, 20s, Female)

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3) Exhibition contents A few comments by international visitors implied they did not have enough background knowledge about American society to fully enjoy the exhibition content.

Comparing the comments of domestic and international visitors who appreciated the same portraits exhibition of American presidents, the former seemed to feel more attached to the exhibition content.

“I wanted to know the politics of America, but in reality I did not know very well. Looking at the portrait of the president did not know who was who.” (NPG: Excellent, France, 60s, Female)

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4) Design familiarity

When it comes to museum and exhibition design, almost all of the US visitors positively evaluated; the IV gave the equivalent number of negative comments to the positive ones.

Comparing the negative comments of domestic and international visitors, the later requested to present the introduction and best route suggestion in each museum or exhibit.

Some of the Smithsonian museums did not present these information that confused some IV because they had to decide which exhibition in what order they look around by themselves.

“The reason why I did not rate as ‘Superior’ is I did not know what is where. The museum is quite big and does not have the exact route. Finally, I could figure out this was here and that was there.”(Excellent: NMNH, Japan, 40s, Female)

“When I get inside, I have not seen any introduction to this museum. It is difficult to come up with the best route instantly." (PFG: NASM, Poland, 30s, Male)

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5) Interactive opportunities

Many of the visitors’ OER evaluation changed depending on how much they got the interactive opportunities with objectives and people.

There are mainly two interactive opportunities in the existing exhibition of each museum: the one has a supportive role in making visitors easy to understand the exhibition content. The other has an application role in testing visitors whether they can utilize the knowledge which they got in the exhibition.

Especially, many IV requested to increase the former activities - particularly the interactive “activities” not “communication” because of their linguistic worries.

”A lot of things about planes and space, so I would like to ask if it was easier to understand the exhibited materials with more interactive activities"(Excellent: NASM, Austria, 10s, Male)

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6) Linguistic restriction

In all of the museums, the exhibits are all described in English and partially in Spanish, and a part of museums distribute audio guides in English, Spanish and Chinese with charges.

Those who mentioned language restrictions in their responses were all in the “Excellent” or "PFG" group of IV.“I need more translation.” (NMAI: Excellent, China, 20s, Male)

"Due to linguistic reasons, Korean museums are better as I can explore more contents." (NMAH: PFG, South Korea, 50s, Female)

Even if those who can understand the most parts of description about the exhibit, do not know several professional English words, they are hard to fully understand the content of exhibit.

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7) Time limitation Perhaps because the scale of the Smithsonian museum complexes was so much being greater than what they imagined, some IV were frustrated with their time limitation and rated the museum “Excellent” or “PFG” not “Superior”.

Many IV visited the museums through a Washington D.C. 1-2 day tour. The visitors in such a tour cannot look around the museums in their own pace.

“There were too much professional information. So, it takes really time to understand everything. I could not finish all contents.”(NMNH: Excellent, Peru, 30s, Female)

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Practical Solutions Enable visitors to reach their interesting museums, targeting information and collections smoothly

Incorporate terms and elements enhancing IV’s interest and understanding into the exhibits regarding to domestic history and characters

Display museum quick overview

Suggest model route corresponding to audience time and interest

Introduce mobile device explaining artworks in multi languages

Increase simple interactive activities to assist IV’s understanding

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ConclusionThis study conducted quantitative analysis of the SI-wide survey and the qualitative analysis of the interviews to 200 international and 100 domestic visitors.

As a result, the SI-wide survey revealed that the IV’s OER was worse than that of the US visitors.

Also, the interviews clarified in why the satisfaction of foreign visitors as compared to museum experience of domestic visitors was lower.

The foreign visitors’ OER evaluation was affected by the factors such as the degree of interest in the museum, level of achievement of visit purpose, exhibition contents and design familiarity, as well as time and linguistic restriction.

Especially, the museums need to find practical solutions mitigating inconvenience and shortage felt by foreign visitors.

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Reference Pekarik, A., Schreiber, J.B., and Visscher, N. “Overall Experience Rating – Measuring Visitor Response in Museums.”, Curator: The Museum Journal, 61(2), 2018, pp. 353-365.

Smithsonian Institution “A Four-seasons Survey of the Smithsonian Visitor Experience.”, https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/35822;jsessionid=A526168137AD8F9BECE8D40 232BA1314, 2017A, 2018.11.26.

Smithsonian Institution “Strategic Plan: Smithsonian 2022.”, https://www.si.edu/sites/default/files/about/smithsonian-2022- strategic-plan.pdf, 2017B, 2018.11.26.

21This presentation was sponsored by MUSEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN (全日本博物館学会).