Visitors to Two Types of Museums: Do Expenditure Patterns Differ?

The authors study the determinants of the expenditure behaviour of visitors to two types of museums. Ad hoc surveys were conducted between June and September 2011 of visitors to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and the Museum of Modern and Contemporaneous Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART). These are the two principal museums in the Italian provinces of Bolzano and Trento. The double-hurdle model is used via the Heien and Wessels two-step estimator. This procedure splits the process of spending decision into the stages of ‘selection’ and ‘outcome’, and also results in consistent estimates. The findings highlight two distinct profiles. The spending of visitors to the modern art museum is positively related to its cultural interest, whereas the expenditure profile of the archaeological museum visitors is more ‘generalist’.