Smart Museums. Definition and presentation of a smart management model for museums.

Abstract

The appearance of smart models for tourism management has contributed towards a more efficient administration of tourism products. However, museums are institutions that have not been explored from this angle and possess great potential for their application. This research aims to put forward a proposal of a Smart Model for museum management and define the main characteristics of a Smart Museum. Although plenty of museums are adapting their facilities and experiences through a digital transformation, there are scarcely any that adopt the Smart designation for their description, nor base their operation on existing literature on smart management. A focus group with experts in museology, smart management and heritage innovation allowed to identify the main components for smart management to take place in a museum setting. Furthermore, the data were coded, organised and analysed thematically focusing on the principal elements discussed in the group meeting. The absence of a clear definition for a smart museum was detected. Nonetheless, the contributions from the focus group, together with the findings from the literature review on existing smart models provided the necessary concepts to establish a definition and build an application model adapted to museums.