Marta Šveb Dragija and Daniela Angelina Jelinčić have published a new book chapter within the research framework of the Center for Sustainable Development through Culture. The chapter titled Museums of the Future: Cultural Tourism Experiences for Wellbeing and Transformation is part of the book “The Future of Cultural Tourism” edited by Xavier Matteucci and Simone Moretti. The book provides multi-layered and nuanced perspectives on how drivers of change may influence cultural tourism at global, national and local levels. The mentioned chapter contributes with a view on the future role of museums in cultural tourism experiences. Already today, museums play an important role in promoting visitor wellbeing (Chatterjee, Vreeland & Noble, 2009; Vogelpoel et al., 2013; Jelinčić & Matečić, 2021; Šveb Dragija & Jelinčić, 2022). While the concept of restorative museums was introduced in 1993, it has not been sufficiently studied (Kaplan, Bardwell & Slakter, 1993). Likewise, eudaimonic wellbeing (Ryff, 1989) and hedonic wellbeing have been studied (Diener, 1984), albeit less in the museum context. At the same time, travel activities are often seen as instantaneous remedies for healing and short-term escape from stressful lifestyles, as they offer new experiences, possibly resulting in wellbeing. While transformation is not a simple process as it requires a physiological change in the brain’s neural networks, there are indications that museum tourism experiences may become a polygon for experimentation for new models of cultural tourism. The assumption is that, in the future, museum activities will increasingly incorporate storytelling and experience design in order to foster visitors’ wellbeing and transformation. To investigate museum experiences, focus group methodology is applied to three different participant groups: museum professionals, tourism agencies, and decision-makers. The main research questions are focused on investigating (1) the main factors in museum experience design influencing wellbeing and transformation respectively, and (2) the role of induced emotional valence in such experiences. The research is conducted in Croatia. Policy and managerial implications are derived from the study findings.
The book is available here: https://www.channelviewpublications.com/page/detail/?K=9781845419271
The article is available in the open-access format here: https://zenodo.org/records/14730188
