The Most Common Visitor Types

First, we made a list of reasons museum visitors might visit.

Then, we learned John Falk’s Five Visitor Identity Types.

For the finale, do museums get equal amounts of each type? And does it vary by kind of museum? No, and yes.

Here’s the lowdown. (Consult our description of each type if needed.)

History museums, science centers, and natural history museums share a similar list, if you rank Falk’s visitor types from most common to least common:

1. Explorers *
2. Facilitators *
3. Experience Seekers
4. Professionals / Hobbyists
5. Rechargers

* Museums overall tend to get more Explorers and Facilitators than any other type. In fact, those two combined might be half our visitors.

But there are variations. For example, at art museums, Rechargers go from the smallest group to the second-largest (mmm, art):

1. Explorers
2. Rechargers
3. Facilitators
4. Experience Seekers
5. Professionals / Hobbyists

And at tourism-heavy museums, regardless of subject matter, those bucket-list types jump right to the top of an otherwise normal ranking:

1. Experience Seekers
2. Explorers
3. Facilitators
4. Professionals / Hobbyists
5. Rechargers

Here’s the thing:

Sometimes we’re so focused on trying to make our exhibition projects great, we don’t think about why visitors visit to begin with.

Knowing why they do — Explorers, Facilitators, Experience Seekers, Professionals / Hobbyists, and Rechargers — might be just the help we need.

Warmly,
Jonathan

P.S. That’s a wrap! See anything in “Why Visitors Visit” Week that deserves a follow-up? Hit reply and let me know! No wrong answers.

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MtM Word of the Day:
UV, or ultraviolet. A component of light, from light bulbs or sunlight, that causes fading or deterioration in materials like paper, cloth, and color pigments. Good lighting design and light filters can protect collections from too much UV.