The Love-Hate Relationships with Guided Tours

As we shared in a recent post, museum visitors are split right down the middle about the value of guided tours, and they have very strong opinions either way.  And while we think this issue has ramifications for museums across the board, it has the most impact on historic house museums, which tend to rely heavily on guided tours as a primary form of interpretation.

 

To delve deeper into this issue, we turned back to the results of our recent survey of Connecticut Cultural Consumers (funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council).  First, we found that Museum Advocates were more likely to prefer guided tours than Core Visitors to museums.  

 

Additionally, the type of museum on whose behalf respondents were participating made some difference; those who took the survey for historic house, art, or history museums were somewhat more likely to prefer guided tours than those who responded for science and children’s museums.  These results may have to do with visitor expectations for the kind of interpretation they often encounter at different types of museums.  However, we suspect the age of the respondent has even more to do with it.  Respondents to historic house, art, or history museums were overwhelmingly over the age of 50 – an audience that is much more likely to enjoy guided tours than younger respondents (though even here only barely more than half enjoy tours).  

 

In fact, visitors’ love-hate relationships with guided tours are most apparent among respondents of different ages and parental status.  Older audiences were far more likely to enjoy guided tours than younger ones and moms with young children were the least likely to enjoy guided tours, feeling they were not age-appropriate for their children (see graph, below). 

 

 

What does all this mean?  If your museum relies on guided tours as a (or the) primary interpretation method, chances are that only a little less than half of your visitors are satisfied.  And widening your audience base to include families, for instance, may be more challenging.

 

What about the majority of museum visitors who dislike—even hate—guided tours?  What kinds of experiences might appeal to them instead of guided tours? When we asked our Connecticut respondents “If you could do whatever you wanted at a historic house museum, with no restrictions, what would you do?” among their top wishes were:

 

• Experiencing the museum at their own pace
• More hands-on, participatory experiences
• Touching, or otherwise getting closer to, original artifacts
• Consuming food and drink—historically appropriate or not
• Participating in special or social events, either as a guest or a host
• Extending visits to include full days, overnights, or even longer periods of time

 

A lot of these wishes are time-honored alternatives that are accepted in the field.  Some of them, on the other hand, may make the hair on the back of your neck stand up (we will be delving a little deeper into this when we talk more in depth about touching original artifacts in a later post). 

 

We would love to hear your thoughts and questions.  To share or ask questions, simply click on “comments” below.  (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to our blog's website to add a comment.)  Please include the name of your museum as well!

Comments

[Margie Maynard]

Thanks for the article about visitor's responses to guided tours. I'd like to know how "guided tour" was defined in this case, and if there are any studies or plans to study other kinds of guided experiences that may not include a formal tour? I am thinking about museum staff or volunteers that are posted in the galleries to answer questions, assist with an interactive, direct visitors to additional resources, or engage them in casual conversation about the exhibitions or a particular object.

Also in this study was there any differentiation between guided tours by staff vs. volunteers?

Thanks again,
Margie Maynard
Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

[Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors]

Hi Margie -

Good questions. The survey question asked respondents how they preferred to experience museums and historic sites. There were several possible choices, including: guided tours; talking with staff; on our own; audio tours; hands-on activities; classes; programs/events; videos and electronic media. These choices do distinguish casual questions and interactions one might have on the floor of a museum (talking with staff) from a more formal tour (guided tour). And from the follow-up questions on why the respondents did or did not enjoy guided tours, it is clear from the written-in responses that the vast majority of respondents understood "guided tours" to mean a formal tour experience.

Now, your second question. Nope. Very few respondents differentiated between staff and volunteers at all. In short, the person they interact with represents the museum. Period. Whether they are paid or not is largely irrelevent. Which means that when placing volunteers in positions, just like with paid staff, it is really important to focus on attitude, not aptitude. If a volunteer does nto have the right attitude to interact with the public, consider another assignment for that volunteer. Preferably one in the offices or assisting with collections!

Thanks for the questions!

Susie

[chatline]

On a personal note, I enjoy it more if there's a tour guide, guiding our group...

[Mark E. Dixon]

"Touching, or otherwise getting closer to, original artifacts."

It seems to me that most visitors might be satisfied by being able to handle reproductions of artifacts rather than the originals. Visiting Sturbridge Village about 10 years ago, my young daughters were given period dresses to put on over their shorts and T-shirts. The dresses fastened up the back with velcro strips and -- presto! -- two 1850s young ladies. I've also seen children allowed to put on reproduction Civil War military gear. Kids don't know the difference.