Audiences at the “New” Museum: Visitor Commitment, Diversity and Leisure at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Abstract

ABSTRACT In response to the “new museology” and a competitive and financially constrained environment, museums are increasingly expected to maintain high overall visitation, a democratized audience base and multiple offerings in terms of visitor experience. This article examines over a decade of visitor statistics from the “new” Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which opened in 1998, to determine the extent to which it is meeting these expectations. The findings demonstrate Te Papa's successes, as well as its ongoing challenges in attracting a diverse and committed audience from a geographically dispersed, multicultural population. Also evident is the museum's varied leisure functions relating to holidays, social outings, and special events. Te Papa's visitor database, which has been consistently accumulated throughout a critical period in the history of the museum, thus provides insights into visitation in the context of the “new” museology and the repositioning of museums within the leisure and tourism industry.