Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate through an empirical research the factors that would attract visitors to heritage and cultural sites as museums applied on the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). The paper aims to study the impact of the proposed attraction features learning/knowledge, museum facilities, fun/entertainment and socializing and accessibility/location on pre-visit destination image. Design/methodology/approach The author started by a thorough literature review to arrive to the suggested conceptual model, which is tested by adopting a quantitative approach where data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a convenient sample of 300 respondents with 90% response rate and used partial least squares – structure equation modelling using Smart PLS v.3.2.8. Findings The results show that three of the tested factors were accepted and one was rejected. Practical implications Management of GEM, which will be one of the biggest museums world-wide, can make use of the empirical results of this research to enhance their understanding of the factors that impact pre-visit destination image, and thus, most attract visitors to justify the budget set in this huge project and achieve highest visitation and revenue Originality/value This research deals with a new museum that has not opened its doors yet and will start functioning in late 2020, and thus, the pre-visit image of the museum is not based on previous experience of visitors but rather on secondary sources as messages sent to visitors based on attraction features, while most previous studies dealt with post-visit image of museums
Highlights
Despite the fact that the Tourism sector in Egypt suffered from depression since the Egyptian revolution in 2011, the Egyptian Government has invested a huge sum to build the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in a better and safer location as the old Egyptian museum suffered from damage and theft
The GEM will be one of the biggest museums world-wide and it is for the tourists coming to Egypt and for all generations of Egyptians to handle down the heritage and protect the identity of Egypt
According to the American Association of Museums (2012) at present museums are facing severe struggle due to very tough competition as they compete for a share of the customer’s wallet with other cultural sites and monuments and with other various types of leisure and entertainment activities such as cinemas, theatres, sports events, theme parks and other attraction events and outings (Heidenreich and Plaza, 2015). Added to this is the fact that governments are cutting down on budgets directed to cultural heritage sites when their people need more funds in areas that are more urgent and crucial as food, safety, health and basic education
Summary
Despite the fact that the Tourism sector in Egypt suffered from depression since the Egyptian revolution in 2011, the Egyptian Government has invested a huge sum to build the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in a better and safer location as the old Egyptian museum suffered from damage and theft. The GEM will be one of the biggest museums world-wide and it is for the tourists coming to Egypt and for all generations of Egyptians to handle down the heritage and protect the identity of Egypt. The museum managers need to market for this project so as to attract the biggest number of both local and. Published in Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences. Social Sciences works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://
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