New Zealand’s national tourism product is centred on a natural environment
of exceptional scenic beauty, allied to a unique and vibrant indigenous
culture, and the museum sector is an increasingly important element in a
flourishing tourism industry–almost half of the country’s international visitors
include a museum or art gallery in their holiday activities (New Zealand
Tourism Board, 1996). However, museum visitation is an under-researched
topic in both the marketing and the tourism literature, and there is considerable
potential for the investigation of patron behaviour in what is an increasingly
competitive sector of the inbound visitor industry. The research project
described in this paper resulted from one small museum’s desire to learn
more about their visitors, and the extent to which visitor satisfaction translates
into subsequent behavioural intentions which would affect the museum’s
future development.