Do museums utilise the strategic opportunities tourism provides?
MúzeumCafé 13.
Gábor Limbacher, Director of Veszprém County Museums: The Veszprém County museum network covers the largest area of the Balaton tourist region. In recent years the county authority has examined the institutions in terms of what degree they are able to be self-financing and to what extent they require support from the funding body. The county is determined that local authorities will manage the museums and galleries by Lake Balaton better. Museology is not primarily important for its own sake or the distant future, but for the present. It is practical to implement large projects which are viable not only culturally but also financially. Where else could there be a better opportunity for such endeavours than in the Balaton region?
Erzsébet Bircher, Director, Central Mining Museum: I don’t think there is a museum director in Hungary who would think it unimportant whether tourists visiting his or her town are interested in local collections and exhibitions. Nevertheless, although it is important for an average Hungarian museum that its number of visitors be as high as possible, it is sometimes our finances and sometimes our talent which is in short supply. There is no more left to ‘sell’ our exhibitions, often created at high cost, and without that it is impossible to appear effectively in the tourism market. Despite the fact that in recent years we have made careful inputs and spent money on better promoting our museum, we shouldn’t deceive ourselves that we have something to offer as a primary factor in terms of tourism. We’ve had to face up to the fact that the marketing tools we have used and could still pay for are not effective enough.
Gabriella Molnár, President, Association of Hungarian Travel Agents and Tour Operators
Foreign tourists stay in Hungary for an average 2-3 days and there isn’t much time for visiting museums in addition to general sights.: Museum programmes must be announced in good time because travel agents work half or a year in advance. It is vital for museums to have texts at least in English apart from Hungarian. Toilets must exist and they should be clean. It is unacceptable for museum attendants and security guards to be impolite and it is essential that during opening hours a competent person can always be reached if the special needs of a group have to be discussed in advance. It would be very good if all museums had identical opening hours, ideally from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Monday, so it would be simpler for everyone to organise programmes. It is important for visitors to enter a museum without queuing as waiting for a long time in a line is a negative experience. Every museum and gallery should have a clear and easily manageable website, leaflets and publications in several languages (Hungarian, English, German) to inform hotels and travel agents.