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Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research

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Why do Visitors Go to Museums? The Case of 921 Earthquake Museum, Wufong, Taichung
Chris Ryan & Shih-Yun Hsu
a a b

Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
b

Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan Available online: 23 Mar 2011

To cite this article: Chris Ryan & Shih-Yun Hsu (2011): Why do Visitors Go to Museums? The Case of 921 Earthquake Museum, Wufong, Taichung, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 16:2, 209-228 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2011.556342

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Asia Pacic Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 16, No. 2, April 2011

Why do Visitors Go to Museums? The Case of 921 Earthquake Museum, Wufong, Taichung
Chris Ryan1 and Shih-Yun Hsu2
1

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Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand 2 Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan

The paper examines the motives and sources of satisfaction of 286 respondents relating to the 921 Earthquake Museum in Taichung, Taiwan. In concludes that income, age and education remain statistically signicant determinants of at\titudes, and notes the existence of four clusters derived from k-means analysis but supported by a cross-tabulation of cluster types and categories derived from themes identied in responses to openended questions. The paper lends some support to the continuum of the authentic to pure essentialism while arguing that the latter is a logical corollary of the concept, but in practice will be rare. In that respect the Museum represents a negotiated essentialism in that the core of the Museum is the damaged school, but it has been sanitized. Reference is also made to differing concepts of museums and the literature relating to competing understandings of the roles of museums and why people visit them. Key words: museums, visitor motives, Taiwan, earthquakes

Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to examine the sources of satisfaction derived from a visit to 921 Earthquake Museum in Taichung County, Taiwan. Hence, it reports the results of a survey derived from visitors to the museum with reference to what was perceived as important about museums in general and their specic reactions to the 921 Earthquake

Museum. The paper is structured as rst to review the literature relating to museums as attractions for visitors, second to describe the nature of the museum, then to discuss considerations of questionnaire design and nally to present the results of the study. An importance-evaluation approach was adopted and a regression analysis conducted. It was found that when the museum commemorates a relatively recent event that touches a

Email: caryan@waikato.ac.nz

ISSN 1094-1665 print/ISSN 1741-6507 online/11/020209 20 # 2011 Asia Pacic Tourism Association DOI: 10.1080/10941665.2011.556342

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu knowledge, and early studies such as those of Boggs (1977) indicate that people could recall facts after their visit, and in the case of historical re-enactment, Ryan and Dewar (1995) found evidence of recall several months after a visit. Boisvert and Slez (1994) examined the relationship between visitor characteristics and use of museum displays to assess whether this relationship helped predict levels of learning. They found no relationships between gender, age or social grouping on the one hand and attraction, holding power or engagement levels on the other with reference to an exhibition on the human body, although they noted other studies that found contradictory results. This seems to imply that the subject matter of an exhibition does have a role to play in attracting differing groups of people. McIntyre (2009) is another who notes at least two decades of research about the purpose and function of museums and art galleries, but he takes a middle path between the contentions of a lack of research and that there is much research by arguing that for all the research that has been undertaken there is a need for more as museums change. For example, they have introduced cool spaces in the form of cafes and atriums, and devote less space . . . supportive of an involved or reective adult learning experience, of a warm nature (in humanistic, individual or social terms) . . . (McIntyre, 2009, p. 156). His own study was undertaken in Bournemouth and utilized language used by informants. He concluded that the desired experience is a self-oriented immersion in the cultural objects of another age, of a performance of personal reection and imaging . . . across past, present and future realms (McIntyre, 2009, p. 165). He consequently devised a conceptual model of cold, cool, warm and hot spaces along dimensions of space usage and experience involvement.

strong communal experience, socio-demographic variables of age, income and education can help to determine attitudinal scores, although as discussed these are not wholly independent variables. The paper also discusses hot and cool spaces in the museum, and implications of these results are discussed in the nal section of the paper.

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Museums and Visitors A Literature Review

Gil and Ritchie (2009) argue few studies exist that generate understanding of what visitors expect when visiting a museum, and what provides them with satisfaction. In their study they examined the role of image in attracting visitors and compared results derived from a survey of 103 tourists and 149 residents to 13 sites in Gran Canaria. They found little difference between residents and visitors . . . in the way that image functions (relationship among the different dimensions of image) and its inuence on visitor satisfaction (Gil & Ritchie, 2009, p. 491). With reference to the cognitive image they found that general visitor experience, general appearance, and a souvenir shop were found to be important determining variables. Slater (2007, p. 149) presented a different case from that propounded by Gil and Ritchie (2009), arguing that Researchers have been trying to nd out why and how people visit museums and galleries for over a 100 years a view with which the current authors concur. In a study at a London Gallery and using a scale derived from the Beard and Ragheb Leisure Motivation Scale (1983), she found three underlying dimensions explaining visitor motivations: escapism, learning, and social and family interaction (Slater, 2007). Certainly museum staff would maintain, it is suggested, that one of their functions is the imparting of

Why do Visitors Go to Museums? Hetherington (2007) is another who examined concepts of space in museums, albeit from the perspective of movements through museums. He began by noting that from a public authority perspective museums have often been used to attract visitors to areas as part of urban regeneration policies, as is evidenced in the Liverpool and Swansea docks areas in the UK. Hetherington (2007) presented a case study of such a development in the case of Manchester, UK, in the aftermath of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing of 15 June, 1996, in which 220 people were injured and about 1,200 buildings adversely affected. He noted that the Millennium Project-funded Urbis project takes people through the city using entertainment through interactive displays and engagement to develop thinking and learning about the urban experience. Interestingly, he noted that dependence on this technology has meant displays have become dated and the experiences of city life abstract and hence less effective in the process of knowledge transfer. Taking these issues of image, space, display attraction and visitor characteristics together among other variables, the work of Koran, Longino, and Shafer (1983) represents an interesting retrospective look at museums and the research undertaken within them. They sought to establish a framework for conceptualizing research in museums through the generation of a taxonomy of types of exhibit and related patterns of visitor behaviour. Thus, they devised a model comprising key variables of display (the static to the walkin), usage of space and differences among visitors and behavioural patterns. In many ways the last three decades have been fullling the research agenda they wished to engender, but at the same time museums have evolved into social spaces that shape visitor behaviours and in doing so manipulate the subsequent

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understandings that emerge. Given this, a theme that is of importance, and much debated in tourism, namely that of authenticity, perhaps needs to be considered. Chhabra (2008) examined the curatorial view of authenticity, having proposed a continuum of authenticity that ranges through stages of pure essentialism, essentialism/constructionism and pure constructionism, but with intervening phases of negotiation along this dimension. Based on a survey of 50 curators, she argues that for curators an accurate portrayal of the past is that which represents the authentic, and it is this that should serve to inform learning on the part of visitors. Yet she noted that museums do not exist in a vacuum, and while visitors are supportive of an essentialist perspective, the past cannot be represented in its original form. Drawing on the issues of interpretation as described by Ryan (2007), it can be argued that visitors are dependent on curatorial expertise to dene and prioritize that deemed to be important about a time, place or event. However, any curatorial selection of key facts involves value judgements, and so a process of selection derived from a complexity of social, political and economic actions and values takes place which selection itself is presented within the technological, skill and resource base available to a museum. Consequently, in Chhabras terminology, all that is presented is the consequence of a negotiation, conscious or otherwise, and there is no pure essentialist end to the continuum. Therefore, arguably pure essentialism exists as an abstraction for purposes of assessment, but has little other practical signicance. The themes that emerge from the literature as they relate to visitor expectations and evaluations of museums thus go beyond the obvious matters of what the objects selected for the display are and the manner of their viewing.

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu the ground being lifted 2 3 m in the schools sports grounds. That no loss of life occurred at the school was due to the earthquake occurring at 1.47 a.m. The museum thus provides an immediate impression of the force of the earthquake as the visitor walks through purpose-built displays and buildings that weave their way through the ruins of the school. In addition, the centre has a permanent display of photographs that record the impact of the earthquake at other sites in Taiwan, an explanation of how earthquakes are caused, a description of the Chelongpu Fault, which runs through Taichung, an audio visual show of the rim of re and the fault lines in the Asia Pacic Zone and an experience room where visitors can experience the degrees of shaking that were caused by the earthquake. The museum thus serves to commemorate the events, to provide data and information about the earthquake of 1999 and earthquakes in general, and through its audio visual display and hands-on displays (see Figure 5) also to impart knowledge through entertaining means. In terms of the above literature review, it might be said there are hot spaces (the re-enactment of the shaking of the earth) and warm spaces (the very school itself, which is represented as a cleaned building there is no attempt at a representation of the chaotic mixture of classroom furniture and school work that must have been present, but the very twisting of the building portrays the force of nature). There are cool spaces (e.g. a place of story telling of the aftermath of the earthquake through gures projected onto curtains) and cold places (the empty spaces and, arguably, the displays of scientic data and information about the earthquake). Hence, visiting the museum was a key component in the design of the research.

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Issues of interpretation are a key variable, and indeed object, mode of display and interpretation are closely interconnected, for as every item is displayed, it helps shape an articulation of what is considered important and thereby silences that which is not shown. Additionally, the information provided shapes visitor perceptions, again thereby condoning approved interpretations and silencing others; but in addition to this, modes of display may evoke not only cognitive but also affective responses, while the demarcation of space to different activities within a museum such as exhibition space, refreshments and relaxation zones, places of contemplation and areas of souvenir and other purchases all help shape a more holistic response to a visitor experience. From this perspective the physical construct of a museum, especially one constructed on a site of a natural phenomenon, has a role to play in the shaping and determination of visitor assessments. Consequently, the next section of the paper describes the Earthquake Museum.

The 921 Earthquake Museum

The 921 Earthquake Museum commemorates the earthquake of September 21, 1999, in which 2,146 people lost their lives, 11,443 suffered serious injuries, 44,338 houses were totally destroyed and another 41,366 homes were signicantly damaged. It has been estimated by the National Ministry of the Interior that the total damage was approximately US$9.2 billion (National Fire Agency, 2000). The museum is located at what was the Guangfu Junior High School in Wufong, Taichung County, and as can be seen from the photographs of the site (Figures 1 4), major damage was done to the school, with

Why do Visitors Go to Museums?

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Figure 1

A Classroom. 921 Earthquake Museum in particular. On turning the page respondents were presented with a list of statements about why people visited museums, and they were asked to use a seven-point Likert-type scale to show how important these reasons are for themselves. On the scale, 1 represented the lowest score and 7 represented the highest value. The third page then asked respondents to recall a visit to the 921 Earthquake Museum and to assess their evaluation of the museum

Research Method
Following the work of McIntyre (2009) and the role of exhibits in shaping cognitive and affective self-learning from visits to museums, the rst page of the questionnaire comprised open-ended questions about museums and 921 Earthquake Museum in particular. At the end of the rst page it asked for details on how many times respondents had visited museums in general and

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu

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Figure 2.

Classroom Block. of their household income, e.g. did they consider their household income to be below average, average or above average? The

using the same items listed on page 2 of the questionnaire. The nal page asked for sociodemographic data including a self-evaluation

Figure 3.

Another Classroom Block.

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Figure 4

Upheaval of Running Track. resented opportunities for leisure, social interaction and learning, as found by Slater (2007). The Leisure Motivation Scale is premised on

items were informed by the dimensions of the Beard and Ragheb Leisure Motivation Scale (1983) in that items were selected that rep-

Figure 5

Hands-on Display of the Principles of Design of Taipei 101.

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu Warshaw, 1988). Conceptually the approach also has an appeal, arguing as it does that the strength of attitudes might be measured as the product between the importance (cognitive) and evaluative (affective) components of attitude, while the outcome is arguably the conative, that is, a predisposition to action (Fishbein & Aijzen, 1975). However, there are caveats noted by Ouellette and Wood (1998) who, although nding evidence that past behaviours were effective at predicting future behaviour, noted the importance of habit formation and, from a research perspective, the importance of respondents being able to recall accurately past behaviours. This is an issue that pertains to infrequent patterns of behaviour such as museum visits, and the questionnaire, as noted, included an item that asked about frequency of past visits to museums. Nonetheless, the mode of questioning was retained for a further reason because, as shown in Figure 6, it permits an easily assessed diagrammatic representation of results in terms of sources of satisfaction with a visit to an attraction. Respondents were derived from the general public in order to obtain a sample of frequent, infrequent and non visitors to the museum derived from a wide regional basis in order to capture views from non-residents of Wufong. Students attending a postgraduate course in research methods at a Taiwanese university were asked to write to parents and other relatives seeking completion of a questionnaire, each student being asked to write to approximately 10 people. The responses were received over a period of about 1 month. Given the number of students and responses, the completion rate was estimated to be about 90%, but it is argued that the sample is effectively a convenience sample, and the limitations of this are noted below.

the view that motives for engaging in leisure pursuits are based on social, intellectual, relaxation, escape and competency/mastery motives. Additionally, the design of the questionnaire sought to differentiate between those who had visited the museum and those who had not. From the viewpoint of assessing satisfaction, there exists a literature as to the validity of a single item (e.g. to what extent are you satised?) and the use of multiple items (e.g. would you visit this museum in the future? To what extent would you recommend this museum to a friend?). Several papers discuss these issues. For example, Ryan and Cessford (2003) discuss modes of questionnaire design and conclude that the single measure possesses validity. For their part, Rusbult, Martz, and Agnew (1998) argue with reference to consumer behaviour that satisfaction is a precursor, along with other variables, to the persistence of behaviour, and it is this that should be measured. Of some interest is the study by Dholakia and Morwitz (2002), who found that the very act of measuring satisfaction had a subsequent effect on buyer behaviour and that it encouraged future purchases. For his part, Hasegawa (2009, p. 2) argues that reliance on ordinal scales is meaningless, and that is it is essential to examine the magnitude of the relation between ordinal values. He thus proposes the use of probit analysis. In this study, given that the questionnaire was shaped on the grounds discussed above, a single item of satisfaction is used in this paper, but an importance-evaluation approach was also adopted. There are several reasons for this. First, it generates rich data sets. Second, the multi-attribute approach to attitude measurement has a proven record, not only in terms of common usage, but also in terms of predictive abilities of subsequent behaviours (see, e.g. Sheppard, Hartwick, &

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Figure 6

Importance-evaluation Chart for 921 Earthquake Museum. parties are excluded from the visitor statistics. Hence, the sample is representative of adult visits to the museum. Over 80% of the sample had a rst or postgraduate degree, and this reects the Taiwanese education system where over 1.3 million annually go on to some level of tertiary education out of a population of approximately 3.6 million between the ages of 20 and 29 years of age (Ministry of Education of the Republic of China, 2009; National Statistics of the Republic of China Census, 2000). With reference to income levels, 49.3% indicated they had average household income levels but a further 44.7% indicated they possessed above average household income. Just over a third of the sample had at least one child under the age of 16 years. With reference to visiting a museum, just over 18% of the sample had not visited a museum, but two-thirds had visited the 921 Earthquake Museum.

Prior to examining the results the scales were tested for reliability. The alpha coefcient for the importance scale was 0.83 and the split half correlations were above 0.76. The same statistics for the evaluation scale were 0.82 and 0.83. Using the Kaiser-MeyerOlkin test, the sample adequacy was found to be 0.82 on the importance scale and 0.83 on the evaluation scale. The data thus seemed appropriate for further analysis. Indeed, the importance scale proved to be a uni-dimensional scale with alpha coefcients exceeding 0.8 if an item was deleted from the scale (Tukeys test for non-additivity 20.8, p , 0.001, which might be expected from a uni-dimensional scale).

The Sample
The sample comprised 286 respondents, of whom 137 (48%) were male and the remainder female. Of the sample, 27% were under the age of 25 years and 15% over the age of 46 years. Thus, 56% of the sample was between the ages of 26 and 45 years old. This is representative of visitors to the museum once the school

The Results
The results of an analysis of the data are presented in the following in four separate

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu of a multinomial logistic regression analysis that shows the relative importance of each of these variables for the individual items (thereby following the advice of Hasegawa (2009)). In this form of analysis the dependent variable is categorical in nature and thus the sample was divided into low scorers, middle scorers and high scorers using the values of one to three, four and ve, and six and seven, respectively. The advantage of this technique is that it involves a simultaneous consideration of all the categorical data and thus represents a comparative dynamic analysis of the importance of all the data. However, there are some things to consider in interpreting Table 2. For example, age, education and income may be interrelated in that, for example, the higher ones education and the older one is, the higher ones income is likely to be. Thus, while income is shown to be a statistically signicant variable when considering the relationship between the item I am interested in the displays in the museum, it may be serving as a proxy for both age and educational level. However, what Table 2 does indicate is that while the ability of the socio-demographic categorical data is relatively limited in explaining the variance in the determined variable (although it should be noted that these scores do incorporate the use of an intercept) what is of interest is that in some instances the socio-demographic data contribute to predicting correctly respondent membership of determined variable categorical scores in eight of 14 consequences in conjunction with other items. Hence, although psychological aspects are of importance in shaping a reaction to the role of museums as cultural sources or as places to visit on a rainy day, from the viewpoint of museum management it can be seen that generally socio-demographic factors still have a role to play. This may be of importance when consid-

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sections. The rst looks at the attributes of the Museum and reports the scores derived from an importance rating, the second assesses the satisfaction derived from a visit, the third combines the two in a conventional importance-evaluation matrix, and the nal section discusses the results of a cluster analysis and segmentation of visitor types. This last section also conrms a conventional cluster analysis by cross-tabulating clusters with categories derived from responses to open-ended questions.

Museum Attributes thought Important

Table 1 shows the attribute importance scores for the whole sample, and it can be seen that museums are well regarded for explaining history and as sources of information, and are able to meet intellectual needs of nding out and learning. Indeed, no scores are less than the mid-point of the scale (i.e. 4.0, which represents neither important nor unimportant). Second, the responses were checked for the existence of statistically signicant differences between subsamples based on frequency of visitation, and only two items were found, a visit to a museum represents good value for money (F 3.69, df 283, p 0.026) and a museum is simply a good place to visit on a rainy day (F 3.78, df 283, p 0.032). For these two items the mean scores for non-visitors were about 4.16, whereas for more frequent visitors they were about 4.80. Additionally, there no statistically signicant differences in perceptions of importance when comparing by gender, but the other nominal data sets of age, income, level of education and the presence of children all affected the importance scores. Consequently, Table 2 repeats the items shown in Table 1, but also reports the results

Why do Visitors Go to Museums? Table 1

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Mean Scores for the Importance of Museum Attributes and Satisfaction with Visit to 921 Earthquake Museum Importance Importance Satisfaction Satisfaction Mean SD Mean SD 5.46 5.45 5.41 5.41 5.34 1.03 1.07 1.11 1.08 1.09 5.35 5.24 5.51 5.56 5.34 1.01 0.98 1.01 0.96 0.95

Item Museums help to explain our history and todays world I am interested in the displays at the museum It is important to nd out about our past Museums are storage places of our history and culture I want to learn about more about the subject and displays (earthquakes for 921 satisfaction score) I like nding things out There are sometimes special exhibitions I want to see A museum is very conveniently located near me A museum is a good place to take children I feel I have to visit a museum because it is the right thing to do Increasingly the displays are interactive and fun It is simply a place to visit when on holiday A museum is a good place to visit with friends and/or family A museum is a good place to visit on a rainy day
SD: Standard deviation.

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5.31 5.22 5.21 5.19 5.19 5.13 4.96 4.83 4.57

1.13 1.11 1.28 1.27 1.14 1.18 1.25 1.27 1.47

5.37 4.99 4.75 5.27 5.38 5.04 5.03 5.14 4.79

1.18 1.20 1.29 0.95 1.06 1.05 1.22 0.96 1.26

ering specic themes, exhibitions or displays that may be thought to appeal more to specic segments of the general population.

Determinants of Satisfaction
From the viewpoint of evaluating satisfaction, the interpretation offered by the importance-

evaluation gure as shown in Figure 6 is conrmed by the data derived from a linear regression analysis that uses the item of overall satisfaction derived from visiting the 921 Earthquake Museum as the determined variable, as shown in Table 3. Unstandardized coefcients are used because all the data were derived from a seven-point Likert-type scale and thus were homogenous in nature with

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Table 2

The Role of Socio-demographic Variables in Determining Attitudes to Museums Sig. Variable Sig. Variable Sig. Variable Cox & Snell (Including 1 2 3 Intercept) Age 0.001 Income Income 0.001 None Education 0.012 None 0.27 % Correctly Classied 64.2

Attitude Expressed/Measured Museums help to explain our history and todays world I am interested in the displays at the museum

0.51

57.8

0.05 It is important to nd out about our past None Museums are storage places of our history Age and culture 0.027 I want to learn about more about the None subject and displays I like nding things out Age 0.001 There are sometimes especial exhibitions I Income want to see 0.001

None Education 0.028 None Education 0.034 None

None None

0.09 0.18

53.9 60.9

None None None

0.25 0.15 0.00

57.1 59.1 62.5

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A museum is very conveniently located None near me A museum is a good place to take children Income 0.001 I feel I have to visit a museum because it is None the right thing to do Increasingly the displays are interactive and Education fun 0.046 It is simply a place to visit when on holiday Education 0.15 A museum is a good place to visit with None friends and/or family A museum is a good place to visit on a rainy None day

None Age 0.004 None None

None None None None

0.10 0.20 0.09 16.6

53.9 60.6 53.6 64.2

None None None

None None None

0.08 0.15 0.15

63.1 54.3 53.5

Why do Visitors Go to Museums? 221

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu thereby possibly accounting for its statistical signicance in this calculation. In short, for some people the museum provides an interesting place to visit when weather inhibits other sightseeing activities.

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reference to the units of measurement. A constant was retained, but nonetheless these variables still generated a coefcient of determination of 0.402 with a Durban-Watson statistic of 1.97. The tolerance and variance ination factors also indicate little problem within the data with reference to issues of serial correlation and multicollinearity. The data conrm the contribution made to satisfaction from a feeling that the museum has explained the history of the earthquake, the role of the exhibits, that is, the right thing to do (which is discussed below), learning and the museum is a good place to visit on a rainy day (see Table 3). It will have been noted that this last variable was the least important of the reasons given for visiting a museum (see Table 1), but equally it can be noted it is the item with the largest variance,

Importance-evaluation Assessments
As noted above, the questionnaire was designed on the premise of an importanceevaluation approach, and the mode of questioning permitted the subsample who had actually visited the 921 Earthquake Museum to be separately identied. The conventional importance-evaluation matrix comprises four cells, and this process was adhered to. The top right-hand cell represents the items that respondents feel are important and are highly

Table 3 Determinants of Satisfaction with a Visit to 921 Earthquake Museum Unstandardized Coefcients Model B (Constant) The museum helps to explain the earthquake history and todays world There are sometimes special exhibitions I want to see I feel I have to visit the museum because it is the right thing to do The museum is simply a good place to visit on a rainy day I want to learn about more about earthquakes 1.458 0.252 SE 0.541 0.072 2.694 3.489 0.008 0.001 t Sig. Tolerance VIF Collinearity Statistics

0.789

1.268

0.236 0.236

0.063 0.066

3.744 3.591

0.000 0.000

0.762 0.887

1.312 1.128

0.161 -0.188

0.054 0.076

2.975 -2.481

0.003 0.014

0.898 0.893

1.114 1.120

SE: Standard error; VIF: Variance ination factor.

Why do Visitors Go to Museums? satised about. The top left-hand cell represents items for which visitors experience low levels of satisfaction, but that are important to them, and thus represents an area of concern for management. The bottom righthand cell represents an area of high satisfaction to visitors, but which is of less importance to them. The nal cell represents a point of both low importance and low evaluation. There is a debate as to where the cross-hairs that create the four cells should be drawn (see Oh, 2001), but in this instance the cross-hairs have been drawn at points that represent the mean overall satisfaction and importance scores for all the items to distinguish better between the relative positions of the items. It can be seen that the primary motives of learning and discovery are very well met in the case of the 921 Earthquake Museum, although the item about special exhibits and displays appears in the top left-hand cell. Reasons for this are discussed below when considering the data derived from the open-ended comments in conjunction with the nature of the museum. Although the authors would argue there are special features that apply here in the museum, the relatively poor position of these two items might account for the relatively poor position of the item value for money. In making this comment it must be reinforced that these are relative scores and that, for example, the item displays scores above 5.0 for both importance and satisfaction, implying therefore that people do consider displays as important and that they are satised with 921 Earthquake Museum in this respect. Figure 6 also provides evidence that visitors are adopting a more holistic cognitive expectation and assessment of museums that is, the primary roles of the Museum relate to learning, history and explanation and in that sense displays form the subject for the cognitive processes.

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Market Segments
Given this observation, a segmentation using k-means clustering was undertaken using the importance ratings and produced four different clusters, with the data being shown in Table 4. Importance ratings are used given that importance is a more consistent psychological rating than evaluation or satisfaction (e.g. see discussion by Krosnick, 1988, 1989). The rst cluster represented 34% of the sample and scored consistently high across all the items, implying that all the listed attributes were important to them. The second cluster represents another large group numbering only 92 in total, and essentially their interests are primarily intellectual and knowledge-seeking and the other attributes of the museum matter less to them. The third group of 13 respondents represent a small group who generally have little interest in museums, whereas the nal group of 83 respondents (29% of the total sample) tend to value the museums in ways similar to the rst but with weaker knowledge-seeking motives and possibly as a group may attribute value to the museum as a place to visit akin to a tourist site. Using SPSS discriminant analysis options showed that 97.2% of all respondents were correctly allocated to an appropriate cluster with Wilks Lamba signicant at p , 0.001(signifying that grouping variable was signicant). Some supporting evidence for this last interpretation was found when conducting supplementary testing. For example, when examining clusters by the presence of children under 16 years, chi-squared (x2 15.6, df 3, p , 0.001) was signicant and cluster four had a third more children of this age group than was the expected gure. Cluster membership was also statistically signicant when examining relationships with

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu Table 4 Final Cluster Centres 1 3 4 5 Mean Mean Mean Mean

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I am interested in the displays at the museum 6.11 I want to learn about more about the subject and displays 5.84 A museum is a good place to take children 5.81 Museums help to explain our history and todays world 6.13 A museum is a good place to visit with friends and/or family 5.77 It is simply a place to visit when on holiday 5.73 A museum is very conveniently located near me 5.90 I feel I have to visit a museum because it is the right thing to do 5.98 There are sometimes special exhibitions I want to see 6.06 Museums are storage places of our history and culture 6.18 Increasingly the displays are interactive and fun 5.87 I like nding things out 5.76 It is important to nd out about our past 6.05 A museum is simply a good place to visit on a rainy day 5.13 A museum visit is good value for money 5.11
Bold point indicates the items that generate the composition of the cluster.

5.48 5.42 4.72 5.16 4.15 4.32 4.60 4.59 4.86 5.09 4.65 4.96 5.08 3.58 4.11

3.92 3.85 3.23 4.08 3.08 3.00 3.62 3.31 3.77 4.31 3.46 4.08 4.31 3.54 2.77

4.90 4.95 5.36 5.19 4.76 5.07 5.39 5.23 4.83 5.04 5.11 5.43 5.19 5.23 4.88

levels of satisfaction, with cluster three having signicantly lower recorded levels of satisfaction than the other two at p , 0.001 (means of 4.0 compared with 4.6 5.4 for other groups on visits to museums in general and visits specically to 921 Earthquake Museum). Given the textual data available from the open-ended questions, the validity of the clusters was tested by examining the choice of words used by the different clusters. This was undertaken using the textual analysis program, CatPac. This program, combined with its supplementary program ThoughtView, is based on neural network analysis and generates groupings or clusters of underlying concepts in a text by analysing the locations of and interactions between words within the text after processes of data cleaning (e.g. reducing plurals and singular terms, or the active or passive use of verbs to a singular

classication) and the constructs of labels/ statements by the researcher. Its outputs include word counts, dendograms and perceptual maps (Buenz & Guetschow, 1985; Woelfel & Stoyanoff, 1993). In this study the word count feature of the package CatPac was used to compare the different word usage of the various clusters, with the results shown in Table 5, which lists the top six words by frequency of mention. Percentages are provided to standardize comparison between the clusters. There are both differences and similarities between the clusters. For three of the four clusters knowledge appears frequently, thereby lending support to the contention that visitors to museums actively seek new knowledge. In the analysis a distinction was made between the words interest and interesting the former being an expression of motivation on

Why do Visitors Go to Museums? Table 5 Cluster 1 Clusters and Commonly Used Words Cluster 3 Cluster 4

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Cluster 2 Knowledge Seekers Interesting Knowledge Leisure Interest Meaningful Educational 15.7 13.4 10.2 9.4 6.3 7.1

All Important Knowledge Interest History Convenient Education Learn 16.9 16.9 12.7 7.0 7.0 7.0

Little Interest Me Reasons Took Visit Children Bored 14.3 14.3 14.3 14.3 7.1 7.1

Museums Valued as a Place to Visit Knowledge Learn Leisure Interesting Time History Relax 18.0 12.3 9.8 9.8 11.5 6.6 6.6

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the part of the respondent, and the latter being interpreted as an attribute of place. Thus, for cluster two the knowledge seekers museums are interesting, meaningful and educational places in which they have an interest. For cluster four though, museums are not just places where one can gain knowledge and where you can learn, but you need time and they are places where you can relax. The smallest cluster seems, from the textual analysis, to be motivated by a need to take children and, from the quantitative analysis, museums are not intrinsically interesting places for these respondents. For cluster one, one differentiating word is the importance attributed to museums being convenient.

Summary of Findings
The main ndings that result from this study include: museums are perceived as important as storage places of history and knowledge; but they can also serve as good places to take children (see Table 1). Socio-demographic variables possess some importance as determinants of visitation, with age and education having a primary role and income also being found to possess some signicance (see Table 2). The 921 Earthquake Museum appears to satisfy many of its visitors as possessing interest and aiding learning and knowledge acquisition (see Figure 1). It was also possible to identify four clusters using the items on a questionnaire based on the dimensions of the Leisure Motivation Scale (Beard & Ragheb, 1983), and the differences between the clusters were supported by a cross-referencing of the clusters with words used by them to describe their attitudes towards museums. These clusters may be labelled high scorers, knowledge seekers, less interested low scorers and museums as tourist sites seekers.

Discussion
This nal section is divided into three sections, a summary of the ndings, implications of the results and a note relating to the limitations of the study.

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Chris Ryan and Shih-Yun Hsu ally the past cannot be represented in its original form, and the 921 Earthquake Museum represents therefore an interesting negotiated representation. The buildings have, subject to safety considerations, been left in their original post-earthquake state, and thus represent the immediate aftermath of the quake. What, of course, is absent from this aftermath is the clutter, debris and remnants of childrens belongings, exercise books and the like, thereby arguably sanitizing the site and perhaps therefore removing the Museum from the connes of dark tourism (Lennon & Foley, 2000). Indeed, many of the displays and interpretative notices relate to issues of building design and how buildings can withstand future earthquakes. Such interpretations explain the use of the word prevention that emerges in some of the text not analysed in this paper. From a practical management perspective the 921 Earthquake Museum can only be said to be successful, and much of this is thought to lie in the nature of the site itself. However, it is noticeable that some cool spaces mentioned by McIntyre (2009) are lacking, such as cafe and souvenir retailing. These are issues that management might wish to address given that past research has indicated that such provision does enhance visitor satisfaction.

However, given the small numbers of less interested respondents, one conclusion is that museums can potentially attract visitors from the vast majority of a population, subject to an important caveat noted below.

Implications of the Study

From a conceptual perspective the ndings support a view, contrary to Boisvert and Slezs (1994) ndings, that, even where arguably there is strong common experience as in the case of the 921 Earthquake Museum, socio-demographic variables such as age and education do play a role in determining visitation. Equally, the value of exhibits is arguably reinforced as the ndings seem to imply that, at least in this specic example, the location and the museum were able to appeal successfully across different clusters by combining the features of being interesting, generating learning, and yet also being able to entertain although the Tukey scores indicate associated additivity on the importance scale and hence a uni-dimensional scale. This being the case, the clusters based on assessments of importance are degrees of nuance rather than perhaps degrees of signicant difference, and given the high importance attributed to knowledge acquisition by the majority of respondents, this statistical relationship is to be expected. From this perspective the concept of essentialism discerned by Chhabra (2008) is supported and, at least in this study, is important for this museum. However, it is a negotiated essentialism and construction can be discerned in the presentation as noted in the above text, where potentially hot empathetic places have been cooled presumably by design in the case of the classrooms. It was noted above that Chhabra (2008) argued that gener-

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Limitations to the Study

It has, however, been observed that these implications are subject to a caveat. In tourism studies generally, given the importance of destination attributes as a reason for visitation, it might be stated that every piece of research is bound by the specics of time and place, and while one might seek to generalize from results, in essence one does so by

Why do Visitors Go to Museums? comparing locations for nuanced differences. For example, not every theme park wholly replicates another, and not every seaside resort possesses the same geography, even though common features might be found. The same is found of museums, and the 921 Earthquake Museum possesses unique components. It was not designed initially as a museum, and would not today be a museum were it not for the earthquake of 1999. Its main features are that of a damaged school, to which have been added interpretative features, so in a sense a museum has been built around the original school, and the school remains at its heart. So the study is bound by the uniqueness and fame of the museum in a Taiwanese setting. From this perspective attempts at generalization of ndings may therefore be limited. It has also been observed that socio-demographic variables have a role to play, and that the sample was thought to be representative of visitors to the museum outside school groups; but the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample are not those of the wider Taiwanese population as shown by census data. The means by which the sample was generated, that is, through family connections of university students, implies a potential bias within the sample population to one that would be more likely to visit a museum, thereby underestimating the numbers that would have fallen into the not interested cluster. The study therefore can say little about how one can convert a lack of interest into a motive whereby museum visitation might result; and, of course, it needs to be recognized that the size of the sample is small. This is not to say that the study is without interest, as it does reect the views of a population that the museum would hope to attract, and indeed two-thirds of the sample had already visited the 921 Museum. At the very least it conrms high

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levels of satisfaction existed among those who had made such visits, and contributes to the literature by conrming that the key museum roles (as perceived by this sample) remain the traditional ones of knowledgeseeking, information acquisition and learning. In the wider museums and tourism literature where the role of entertainment and a dumbing down to make museums more accessible to a non-museum-going public have been discussed, for example in the criticisms made of New Zealands national museum, Te Papa (see, e.g. Goldsmith, 2003; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 2000), such a nding is not without signicance.

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