Individual Visitors Research Articles

Understanding Instant Social Control of Shared Devices in Public Spaces: A Field Trial

Public spaces are created for the convenience of visitors, but frequently, their operation does not match individual visitors' needs. We propose instant social control as a new approach for controlling devices deployed in public spaces, envisioning the democratic and inclusive operation of the spaces. It is an approach to embrace individuals in the dynamic and unpredictable situations of public spaces, providing them with a powerful tool of immediate engagement and reflection. This research explores the use of instant social control, focusing on cases where discrepancies and conflicts arise among visitors' preferences for operating public devices. We conducted a field trial by deploying a technology probe to two real-world public spaces: a university auditorium, and a cafeteria. We collected usage logs and surveyed the users' experience with this new way of device control. We further investigated their experience through in-depth interviews with participants. Our field trial revealed a rich set of findings including voting strategies, exploratory device control patterns, users' attempts to communicate with other visitors, considerations of other visitors' discomfort, and acceptance and usefulness of instant social control of public devices.

Generational translation in the Jewish Museum, Berlin

Abstract This paper addresses the challenge museums of catastrophic history face, striving to translate between history and memory in creating a meaningful and sensitive experience for individual visitors, not only evoking the past but also impacting the present and future. This study focuses on the Jewish Museum Berlin and asks how the museum can impact individual visitor journeys and concurrently address the public demand for memory, the contradictions between museum mission and public perception, and the perceived distance of visitors from historical events. The study builds on memory and translation studies research and the concepts of history, story, and identity. An analysis of entangled memory (Feindt et al. 2014), here applied as an inspiration for generational translation, shows how the crossover between memory and translation studies provides insight into the work of memory museums. Previous research and the history, mission, identity, architecture, and conflicts of the Jewish Museum Berlin show that museums – as (unfinished) collective memories – allow the creation of space for individual reflection and the interpretation of past and present to create a narrative. The work of memory museums is complex, but the concepts of generational translation and entangled memory are valuable tools in provoking and enabling meaningful experience and reflection.

Museum Tourism in the Post-Pandemic Period: Problems and Prospects of Development

The purpose of this paper is to identify modern forms and methods of interaction between a museum and a tourist visitor in new socio-cultural and economic contexts. Museum as a socio-cultural institution is subject to changes occurring in society and reflects in its activities those rules, demands and values that are relevant for a particular period of history. The spread of market relations in the socio-cultural sphere and the processes of digitalization, accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, are directly reflected in the activities of museums. Today, the museum is transforming from a creator and interpreter of scientific knowledge and a guardian of cultural values into an industry that creates a special environment for visitors. Reorientation towards the individual visitor as the main consumer of the museum tourism product poses new issues and challenges for museums. Thus, in the context of individualization of consumer demand, the issue of “including” the museum in the economy of impressions with its emphasis on emotional information, personal experiences of a person and creation of his/her personal experience becomes relevant. Within the framework of the communication approach, the authors of the article investigate the practices of using the basic principles of the impression economy to create a competitive product and build a dialogue between the tourist and the museum on its basis. The latter becomes important in the light of the formation of the visitor’s loyalty to the cultural identity of the city and the region where the museum is located. The application of the system approach allowed to identify general and private practices of museum service in the conditions of a new model of consumption, oriented to meet the increasing demands of the individual tourist. The materials of the article can not only be used in the theoretical and applied activities of museums, but also serve as an analytical basis for regional and municipal state structures in the development of effective programmes and strategies for tourism development.

Constructing the Live Experience at Pop Music Concerts

The aim of this study is to better understand the individual construction of the experience of liveness at pop music concerts and to add knowledge to the field of measuring audience experience in performing arts. The study is based on a mixed-methods methodology, designed to overcome the common difficulties related to researching visitor experiences of live music, and consists of a three-phase interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), made up of a pre-experience questionnaire, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), and participant observation during the experience and a post-experience interview. Based on the outcomes of the study, three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) the construction of the concert experience consists mainly of the interplay between the artist, the individual visitor, and his/her social company; the elements of collectiveness and the physical setting play a less decisive role in the concertgoer’s construction of the experience by our participants; (2) participating concertgoers use three (interconnected) narratives through which they construct their experience; and (3) the concept of absolute liveness is key to the construction of the concert experience, implying that concerts in physical co-presence have a strong distinctive value compared to mediated concerts.

Understanding changing public transit travel patterns of urban visitors during COVID-19: A multi-stage study

COVID-19 has caused huge disruptions to urban travel and mobility. As a critical transportation mode in cities, public transit was hit hardest. In this study, we analyze public transit usage of urban visitors with a nearly two-year smart card dataset collected in Jeju, South Korea – a major tourism city in the Asia Pacific. The dataset captures transit usage behavior of millions of domestic visitors who traveled to Jeju between January 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020. By identifying a few key pandemic stages based on COVID-19 timeline, we employ ridge regression models to investigate the impact of pandemic severity on transit ridership. We then derive a set of mobility indicators – from perspectives of trip frequency, spatial diversity, and travel range – to quantify how individual visitors used the transit system during their stay in Jeju. By further employing time series decomposition, we extract the trend component for each mobility indicator to study long-term dynamics of visitors’ mobility behavior. According to the regression analysis, the pandemic had a dampening effect on public transit ridership. The overall ridership was jointly affected by national and local pandemic situations. The time series decomposition result reveals a long-term decay of individual transit usage, hinting that visitors in Jeju tended to use the transit system more conservatively as the pandemic endured. The study provides critical insights into urban visitors’ transit usage behavior during the pandemic and sheds light on how to restore tourism, public transit usage, and overall urban vibrancy with some policy suggestions.

The influence of sense of place dimensions on visitors' conservation behavioral intention: the case of Semarang Old Town, Indonesia

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to confirm the influence of each dimension of visitor's sense of place (place identity, place attachment and place dependence) on each dimension of conservation behavioral intention (general behavioral intention and specific behavioral intention) in the context of urban heritage.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a quantitative methods. Research respondent is individual visitor who meet the research criteria. The strength influence of sense of place dimension (independent variable) on dimension of conservation behavioral intention (dependent variable) was measured by Somers' D correlation. Primary data were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques.FindingsAll correlation coefficient values were below +0.59. It shows that the sense of place dimensions have a weak influence on each dimension of conservation behavioral intention. Weak correlation occurs because of the setting profile (tourism approaches which tends to be material-based) and the type of visitor (casual cultural tourism and sightseeing tourist) which interprets heritage only as an object of relaxation.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the statistical approach used (nonparametric statistical techniques), the results of the study cannot be generalized. Therefore, further studies with different approaches are needed.Social implicationsThis study demonstrates the need for tourism policy in Semarang Old Town (SOT) as a form of value-driven heritage conservation practice to encourage visitors to appreciate the cultural significance of the area.Originality/valueIn the context of urban heritage area, the literature on research topics is still limited. However, the results of this study were different from previous studies. The weak relationship is explained through an approach that considers contextual factors, namely profile settings and visitor profiles.

Learning through Play

The text presents an overview of educational programmes held with the exhibition project Toys – Childhood Forever. The programmes were held for different groups of museum visitors: kindergarten groups, elementary and secondary school students, university students, old-age pensioners, members of vulnerable social groups, adult individual visitors and families. The key elements of learning are interactions through play and emotional engagement as essential factors of museum experience.

공공북카페의 공간특성과 이용행태 분석

The number of cafes as one of the typical ‘the Third place’ has been dramatically increased. Multi-purpose cafes include functions of the workplace, library, showroom, shop, and gallery. Some typical activities in cafes are working or conversation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the physical characteristics of book cafes and user’s behavioral patterns adjacent to public municipal office areas. For this study, an unobtrusive direct observation method was employed in two cases. Data analysis was conducted to identify physical characteristics (circulation, spatial layout, furniture arrangement) and interior design features (image, shape, material finishes, color, lighting, and natural elements) and behavioral types (conversation, rest, reading, work, and waiting). The target area, which was an idle space in front of the district office’s civil service office, was created as a public book cafe and turned into rest and cultural space freely available to residents and district office employees, and various activities were observed. When a cafe area is combined with a book library, visitors are scattered and use evenly throughout the whole area, while the cafe zone is separated from the library areas, more visitors prefer to staying cafe zone. Duration time may be related to furniture arrangement rather than spatial openness or separation. Social activities such as conversation more frequently took place in open and secured with privacy. Individual visitors for work usually occupied separated and more enclosed areas.

The influence of visitor-based social contextual information on visitors’ museum experience

Visitor-centered approaches have been widely discussed in the museum experience research field. One notable approach was suggested by Falk and Dierking, who defined museum visitor experience as having a physical, personal, and social context. Many studies have been conducted based on this approach, yet the interactions between personal and social contexts have not been fully researched. Since previous studies related to these interactions have focused on the face-to-face conversation of visitor groups, attempts to provide the social information contributed by visitors have not progressed. To fill this gap, we examined such interactions in collaboration with the Lee-Ungno Art Museum in South Korea. Specifically, we investigated the influence of individual visitors' social contextual information about their art museum experience. This data, which we call "visitor-based social contextual information" (VSCI), is the social information individuals provide-feedback, reactions, or behavioral data-that can be applied to facilitate interactions in a social context. The study included three stages: In Stage 1, we conducted an online survey for a preliminary investigation of visitors' requirements for VSCI. In Stage 2, we designed a mobile application prototype. Finally, in Stage 3, we used the prototype in an experiment to investigate the influence of VSCI on museum experience based on visitors' behaviors and reactions. Our results indicate that VSCI positively impacts visitors' museum experiences. Using VSCI enables visitors to compare their thoughts with others and gain insights about art appreciation, thus allowing them to experience the exhibition from new perspectives. The results of this novel examination of a VSCI application suggest that it may be used to guide strategies for enhancing the experience of museum visitors.

Ragnar Kjartansson and the Art of Pleasure

Ragnar Kjartansson and the Art of Pleasure

Are All Welcome? An Empirical Examination of Visitor Networks Among Incarcerated Youth

Although research finds that visitation can be quite beneficial for incarcerated youth, there is variability in when visits matter. One source of heterogeneity is who visits, with existing research finding that certain visitor types are more helpful than others. What has yet to be considered, though, is the importance of visitor networks as a whole. Using latent class analysis, this study examines whether incarcerated youths’ visitors form unique networks, and whether the visitation-recidivism relationship differs across these groups. Results indicate that youths’ visitors fall into three categories: caretakers, immediate family, or a full network of visitors, and that the visitation-recidivism relationship differs across these groups. The results underscore the need for future research to consider not only the individual visitors that incarcerated persons receive but also their visitor network as a whole.

‘You just get sucked into it’: extending the immersion process model to virtual gameplay experiences in managed visitor attractions

ABSTRACT This study investigates the immersion process in virtual visitor experiences in the context of a managed visitor attraction. It validates and extends previously developed models of the immersion process from tourism and proposes an underlying structure with four mechanisms driving the immersion process forward. Data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with visitors participating in virtual gameplay at a commercial gaming centre in Oslo, Norway. Findings indicate that the immersion process is comparable across ‘real world’ and virtual visitor experiences and that the process consists of three stages (engagement, engrossment, and transcending involvement), corresponding with involvement triggers, involvement worlds, and the state of immersion. The study extends previous models of the immersion process by identifying the influence of pre-existing involvement as an ‘involvement booster’ enhancing the individual visitor’s immersion process. The findings have implications for how the underlying structure and components of the immersion process can be understood and offers practical implications for experience designers working in the intersection between virtual and ‘real world’ visitor experiences.

INVESTIGATION OF GIS BASED MOBILE ROUTE PLANNING – NAVIGATION APPLICATIONS FOR TOURISM ACTIVITIES

Abstract. Mobile devices can be used in many areas such as shopping, entertainment and education. The number of mobile applications which provides information about a city or region, helps to find route by navigation and makes accommodation plans with food and beverage suggestions, is also increasing. Since these devices are portable and have access to internet, they emerges as a new and important potential for tourism sector. In particular, the increase in the use of route planning and navigation applications, which are location based services within the scope of Geographic Information Systems, has also affected the tourism sector. Which route planning and navigation applications are used extensively by tour operators, tourist guides and individual visitors ? What are the strengths and weaknesses about these applications? Answers to such questions were sought in this study.

From within the body: proprioceptive art experiences in the museum

This article introduces a new method for understanding the principlesof art and design. It combines meditation techniques, practised and conceptualized proprioceptive body experiences. Starting with a reflection on the so-called ‘sensorial turn’ and on proprioception in particular, the text offers a protocol for proprioceptive art experiences in the museum and a reflection on its theoretical foundations. The greatest advantages of the method are its inclusive nature, applicability to a broad range of artworks and art forms and its ability to overcome the mind-body dichotomy. It can be done by anyone, regardless of age or physical impairments. The approach achieves the best results in a group led by a museum guide, but individual visitors and families can use it as well, with the proper support from the museum.

The Determinants and Valuation of Owabong Waterpark Tourist Destination

This research analyzes the the economic valuation of Owabong development which focuses on two objectives, namely analyzing the determinants of tourist visits to Owabong using travel cost method and multiple regression technique, and determining willingness to pay of Owabong tourists using contingent valuation method. It is quantitative research where by using incidental sampling technique the primary data were collected from 96 respondents—tourists—and completed by secondary data from relevan institutions. The results are that (1) the variables that determine the number of visits to Owabong are travel costs, individual visitor income, and visitor perceptions of the facilities at Owabong; (2) willingness to pay (WTP) for Owabong visitors on weekdays can be a recommendation for entrance ticket increase of 20 percent, that is IDR30,000, while on weekends visitors don't want an increase in entrance ticket, which is still IDR35,000.

Professional staff activation as a scientific problem

The current state of development of professional activation's problem in professional development and formation of personnel, including public service personnel, has been investigated in the article. On the basis of the carried out research it is possible to investigate the maintenance, system of display, functions of professional activation, and factors of influence on it that are now known to a science.It has been noted by the author that only in a small number of scientific, educational and popular science publications it is possible to find specific interpretations of the «activation» concept. It has been concluded that the main emphasis in modern scientific research is directed mainly on the value, orientation, guiding and motivational (stimulating) functions of professional activation. But such an approach cannot be considered sufficient, as the professional activation is more important and more manifested in the professional activities of personnel, so it includes more functions.The study of features, content, functional, activity manifestations and characteristics of professional activation has been made in the article. An attempt to carry out a systematic analysis of professional activation from the standpoint of its users and the impact on other processes in the overall process of professional development and staffing of public administration has been made. It has been concluded that professional motivation and professional activation are different things. It is possible to activate for a short time an unmotivated or insufficiently motivated employee. Motivation creates more changes in the time of work resumption, activation as a "background", as ancillary support has less duration. However, activation can link the entire structure of professional activity from defining the purpose (goal) of activity and ending with its control and reflection. Activation can be handled as a separate general function of the management process. To activate the staff, from the author's point of view, it is possible to use various tools and technologies to work with staff, aimed primarily at: career guidance, assessment, adaptation, training, education.Professional activation promotes the development of professionalism and professional mobility of a person or promotes their further activity due to professional deformation. This is an important function of the professional environment and the corresponding system of measures aimed at actualizing the issues of professional self-determination and development of an individual visitor in the position. This is external support for development, motivation, joint orientation in professions, adaptation, evaluation, training and education of employees on the path of professional development. The response to the influence of the external environment is the formation of self-activation of the individual which includes its professional manifestations.

КУЛЬТУРНАЯ МЕДИАЦИЯ: ИСТОРИЯ И СОВРЕМЕННОЕ ПОНИМАНИЕ ТЕРМИНА

This paper discusses the history of the use and specific understanding of one of the new museology terms – mediation. The terms of museology as an academic and university discipline still need perfecting, and this is vividly manifested in the use and treatment of the notion of mediation. The term originated in the French-speaking world, and it entered the Russian language in the 2010s. Currently, it is being developed by theoreticians and is also often used by practical workers describing the experience of a museum’s interaction with the surrounding world, there is training in this field for a master’s degree in many higher educational establishments in France (over 1,000 graduates every year). It has been noted that mediation is becoming urgent when a museum finally stops being an “ivory tower” focused on its inner life and opened for an exclusive circle of the initiated. In the second half of the 20th century, the museum turned into an institution opened to the general public. In recent decades, society has been deeply transformed, and cultural institutions in this environment can and should play a special role. Society views them as significant public spaces capable of being a place supporting a certain number of values, inherited from previous generations, and establishing new common values. At the same time, changes in society have touched museums as cultural institutions. They were significantly updated, and a new communicative strategy determined by the term mediation replaced traditional forms of working with visitors. Interactions of the museum with society are becoming more socially focused. And the original understanding of a mediator’s importance as an arbitrator dealing with irreconcilable conflicts, harmonizing the dialogue between individuals and organizations plays an important role in this environment in comprehending the special features of intermediary functions traditional for museums in the context of museum items, individual visitors, and various communities. Various forms of cultural mediation both inside the museum and beyond it are reviewed. They are intended for big audiences and single functions if they are such popular parts of events in modern society. Or they are focused on the long-term interaction of a museum with a limited circle. They can be both the traditional for a museum’s educational services audience (e.g. children) and previously marginalized population groups (convicts, migrants), with whom the museum had had no dialogue in the past.

Art Museum Educators: Who Are They Now?

Abstract“Art Museum Educators: Who Are They?” is one of the earliest published studies about individuals in the profession of art museum education. Zeller’s questions elicited responses about their demographics, education, experience, professional involvement, and level of status in art museum professional hierarchies. The results showed that most respondents were upper‐middle class, married women with degrees in art history; had professional involvements with art historical associations and scholars; and existed on a relatively low rung of the professional ladder. The quest to understand more about these individuals is just as relevant 35 years later, as the field navigates a profound paradigmatic shift intent on investing in diverse communities and individual visitors over strictly art‐historical interpretations of objects . This study asks who art museum educators are now and shares the result of a nationwide questionnaire on the personal and professional entanglements of AMEs; critically examines the collected data on those individuals who envision and enact a public curriculum on behalf of their institutions; and suggests broader implications for the field and for art museums that are vastly different than ones Zeller knew.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ПЕРСОНАЛІЗОВАНОГО МАРКЕТИНГУ В УМОВАХ ДІДЖИТАЛІЗАЦІЇ

The article reveals the peculiarities of modern companies development in the conditions of entrepreneurial activity digitalization and transformation by reorientation to the online environment, which allows to increase the level of competitiveness. The growing need of most users to implement individual approaches to product presentation by companies has been proven. Best practices show the success of personalized marketing in the process of increasing consumer loyalty to the brand. The peculiarities of using personalized marketing to increase the level of the target audience loyalty are revealed. The essential role of machine learning methods in the processing of structured and unstructured information obtained through digital channels for the construction of effective models of communications personalization with an individual client. The main formation stages of an effective strategy of personalized marketing are given. Personalization of marketing on the basis of profiling involves operational characterization of an individual visitor according to a system of collected indicators and the implementation of machine learning appropriate model, in most cases modern practices use different neural network architectures, achieving a high level of reliability. Active software development enables companies to apply ready-made solutions to optimize marketing strategy by reorienting to personalized offers to individual customers. Examples of personalization introduction by individual companies in the implementation of appropriate digital marketing tools are presented. Social media is one of the main resources used by the vast majority of the population in the digital environment. Companies actively use social media marketing to communicate with the target audience, providing access to thematic content at regular intervals, which helps stimulate consumer interest in the products of a particular brand. The introduction of innovations encourages companies to constantly adjust the use of digital marketing tools, refocusing on more effective ones in order to strengthen the level of communication with the target audience and increase conversions.

Museum Mobile Guide Preferences of Different Visitor Personas

Personalising museum mobile guides is widely acknowledged as being important for enhancing the visitor experience. Due to the lack of information about an individual visitor and the relatively limited time of his or her visit, adapting the user interface based on a museum visitor's type is a promising approach to personalisation. This approach first requires a mechanism to identify the visitor type (‘persona’) and, second, knowledge of the preferences and needs of different types to apply personalisation. In this article, we report a face-to-face questionnaire study carried out with 105 visitors to Scitech, a science and technology visitor centre. The study aims to investigate the main facts required to identify a visitor persona and to explore the preferences of different visitor personas for particular mobile guide features. We limited our concern to the user interface features of the guide (e.g., whether it provides recommendations for related items to view) rather than what content and services the guide provides (e.g., what related items are recommended). We found that we can reliably identify the visitor persona using two multiple choice questions about visit motivation and perceived success criteria. In addition, we found that visitors have significant preferences for particular features such as presentation media, venue navigation tool, object suggestions, details level, accessing external links, exhibit information retrieval method and social interaction features such as voice communication, instant messaging, group games and challenges. Some features were found to be preferred differently by different personas such as the challenges feature, some were found to be preferred by personas differently to the overall preference such as in presentation media, and some were found to be preferred by some personas with no particular preference for others such as a venue navigation tool. Instant messaging was found to be significantly not preferred by all personas. The results provide a basis for personalisation of museum guides and services using a personas approach, which is a solution where data about individual users may be limited and where the individual configuration of a user interface may not be practical or warranted.