Visitors of two types of museums: do expenditure patterns differ?

This study aims at estimating and comparing the determinants of expenditure behaviour of visitors in two types of museums. An ad-hoc survey was conducted between June and September 2011 among the visitors of the principal museums of the two provinces of Bolzano and Trento: the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology (Bolzano), hosting the permanent exhibition of the “Iceman” Ötzi, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporaneous Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART). The double-hurdle procedure of Heien and Wessels (1999) is used in order to obtain consistent estimates and split the process of spending decision into the stages of ‘activation’ and ‘outcome’. Results highlight two distinct profiles of visitors. Spending of the modern art museum visitor was positively related to her cultural interest, whereas the expenditure profile of the archaeological museum guest was more ‘generalist’.