How Visitor Experience Drives Overall Revenue for Museums and Attractions

Summary

Enhancing the visitor experience isn't just about creating memorable moments — it's a powerful financial strategy. This article explores how museums and attractions that invest in well-designed spaces, clear interpretation, and engaging environments can see significant returns through increased visitor spend in cafés, shops, and beyond.

In today’s competitive cultural landscape, museums and attractions are not just about curating and displaying artefacts. They are about offering an immersive experience that captivates visitors, engages their senses, and leaves them with lasting memories. The visitor experience is now a cornerstone of successful cultural institutions—not only because it cultivates loyalty and repeat visits but because it can have a measurable impact on financial performance. Specifically, an enhanced visitor experience can significantly increase the average spend per visitor, including in key areas such as cafés and gift shops.

 

The Value of a Memorable Experience

A museum or attraction can offer more than just a walk-through of exhibits. When visitors have a rich and memorable experience, whether it’s through educational programming, engaging tours, dynamic content, bigger mission alignment, or aesthetically appealing exhibitions, they are more likely to stay longer, interact more, and, crucially, spend more.

Watauga Group (2024) and Mima Group (2024) both emphasise the importance of creating memorable experiences to encourage loyalty and repeat visits. Visitors are not just looking for content; they are looking for an emotional connection and a memorable journey that encourages ongoing engagement.

According to 'Museums and Trust' by the American Alliance of Museums (2021), museums remain among the most trusted institutions in society, across political and demographic divides. In addition, many reports including one by Forter (2024) and another by Salsify (2025) demonstrate the clear link between consumer trust and average spend. Prioritising building on the trust visitors have in a museum, therefore, alongside enhancing the overall experience as disccussed above, will lead to a correlating increase in support of the museum through shop spending and donations, repeat attendance and recommendations.

The store at the Guinness Museum

The Link Between Visitor Experience and Spend

While increasing visitor satisfaction is important for cultural institutions, there is also a tangible financial benefit, and the relationship between museum shops and cafes and the rest of the museums offering can work both ways to improve visitor experience and increase spend per visitor. A study by McIntryre (2008) found that museum cafes can actually play a significant role in enhancing the overall visitor experience, through their offering, ambient design and service orientation. It is no wonder then that cafes are seen as one of the integral steps towards financial stability for museums, or linked to delivering on community engagement goals (MSDE, 2023). 

The same importance can be given to gift shops. Research conducted by Deshmane (2024) explores the relationship between visitor engagement and souvenir purchasing behavior in museum shops. They found that museums providing greater interaction draw experienced a significant boost in sales quantity and revenue, and immersion strongly increased sales quantity. Visitors may not have come to a museum specifically to shop, but if the visitor’s overall experience is enhanced, they are more likely to purchase a memento — supporting both the museum’s mission and its financial health.

In addition, McIntrye (2010), found that visitors view shops spaces as an integral part of the experience, offering museum teams the opportunity to further enhance the visitor experience through their shop areas, rather than viewing them as something seperate to it - highlighting a potential gap between curators and the shop operation. An example of a great shop experience (in this author's opinion) is the shop at the Harry Potter Studios, in London. The shop itself feels like as much of an immersive, magical experience as the tour itself.  

 

Why the Right Environment Matters

The environment of a museum or attraction is about more than just aesthetics; it’s about creating a space that feels immersive, informative, and comfortable. Creating accessible and engaging museum spaces, including features such as clear signage and interactive elements, is widely recognised as enhancing the visitor experience. Again, these aspects of a positive visitor experience are easy to link with longer visits, repeat visits and greater spending within cultural venues.

At Absolute Museum and Gallery Products, we understand the vital role that quality presentation plays in the overall visitor experience. Our products, such as our collection of Label Holders and range of display solutions, are designed to enhance exhibit presentation and in turn improve visitor engagement. With products that offer flexible, high-quality, and aesthetically pleasing ways to display information, we help cultural institutions elevate their visitors’ interactions with exhibits—creating a seamless experience that extends to cafés and shops.

The Financial Impact of Improving Visitor Experience

Investing in a better visitor experience is not just about improving aesthetics or logistics, or even hitting better metrics on visitor satisfaction ; it’s about the bottom line. Museums and attractions that focus on creating a positive, engaging environment tend to see higher visitor retention, greater word-of-mouth promotion, and increased engagement across different revenue streams.

Its logical to assume that visitors who experience higher satisfaction with art and cultural experiences are significantly more likely to attend regularly and recommend them to others. While the report measures participation rather than museum revenue specifically, it highlights how satisfaction and engagement can translate into behaviours that support financial sustainability — from memberships to return visits, and potentially greater on-site spending.

 

Conclusion

The link between a museum’s visitor experience and its performance is undeniable. By investing in enhancing the overall visitor journey — including the large and small details — museums can encourage longer visits, higher satisfaction, and deeper engagement. Even seemingly small yet significant improvements, such as clear information displays, well maintained exhibition spaces and a welcoming atmosphere, make a real difference in how visitors interact. This in turn increases the likelihood that they will contribute to the museum’s success, whether through spending, returning, or recommending it to others.

The investment in visitor experience is one that pays off. After all, the more enriching the experience, the more likely visitors are to return, spend, and share their experience with others.

References:

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Posted by Jade Turner
10th April 2025

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