El museo y sus públicosestudio de los visitantes reales y potenciales de los museos en la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia: análisis previo a los estudios de público de los museos de Marrakech

Abstract

Abstract This PhD Thesis is justified by the interest that visitor studies have nowadays in museums as a mean to facilitate citizens' social inclusion. Also, it is justified by its relationship with Morocco, in particular with the city of Marrakech, thanks to the participation of the PhD student in the Integrated Action of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) entitled "Research on memory shared, management of the common heritage and cultural tourism between Spain and Morocco. Creation of a Spanish-Moroccan laboratory for the sustainable development of heritage resources", and the grant of a scholarship from the Mediterranean Office for Youth (MOY) to conduct this research in that city. Therefore, three research studies have been conducted whose general goals are to discover the main characteristics of real and potential museum's visitors from the Region of Murcia and to make an approach to the reality of the museums from Marrakech. First, we have researched the visiting habits of real public, their expectations, motivations, needs and prior knowledge about museums by conducting a survey in five museums from the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia (CARM). Then, we have being able to define the profile of the overall visitor for all museums analyzed in the study and a specific profile for each one of the museums. We have also gathered data about the use of different services, opinions and feedback about them and the main facilities for the visit to know the visitors satisfaction. Secondly, we have analyzed the profile of those citizens who do not go to museums by using focus groups. We found out that they are mainly young people, people older than 65 years, housewives, people seeking employment, foreigners residing in Spain and persons with disabilities. Third, we have developed a preliminary analysis of the museums in Marrakech with the intention to explore the possibilities that these museums have to conduct visitor studies. We have identified their strengths and weaknesses, including proposals for schoolchildren and individual publics. The results of these researches are similar to those obtained in other studies about the causes of absence of a type of public at museums (immigrants, young people, disabled and elderly people). This has allowed to concrete intervention proposals that promote their inclusion. The data also indicate a very similar profile of museum's visitors from different European countries like France, Italy, Denmark and Spain. Therefore, the profile of European visitors of museums is very similar. The methods used in these researches have allowed obtaining results applicable to the improvement of museum institutions in the Region of Murcia and Marrakech considering the uniqueness of each of them in relation to their visitors. Positive emotions and debate are valuable ingredients to attract the interest of citizens. Consequently, it can be affirmed that visitor studies include reflection processes of museum professionals and their audiences, which can improve participation, collaboration and inclusion of the last ones.