Visitor Studies: Toward a Culture of Reflective Practice and Critical Museology for the Visitor‐Centered Museum

Abstract

Visitor studies is occupying an increasingly central space within museum practice and theory. Having established itself as a valuable management tool, particularly for educational goals, marketing, and exhibition evaluation, the challenge now is to expand the strategic role of visitor research by integrating it across a broad range of museum functions to demonstrate value, improve performance, and ensure overall organizational sustainability. At the same time, visitor studies is developing as a more methodologically and theoretically sophisticated subfield of museum studies. The key to its future is to maintain a strong dialogue between theory and practice, with museum practitioners and university researchers working together to build a culture of reflective practice and critical museology for the visitor‐centered museum.