ANALYSIS OF CURRENT TRENDS IN MUSEUM VISITATION AS A STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF CULTURAL TOURISM IN EUROPE

Abstract

The article examines the development of cultural tourism in Europe through the prism of museum attendance, which is not just a driving force of human flow, but a strategic incentive in recognizing a particular territory. The main goal of this study is to analyze the impact of attendance at museum locations on the tourist attractiveness of the territory. It is proposed to solve this problem in the following ways, namely, to determine the role of museum locations in the cultural tourism system, to assess tourist and cognitive flows to museums in Europe and to characterize the features of visits to museum locations. A similar topic, namely the role and place of museums in the structure of tourist attendance, is covered in the works of many scientists, both domestic and foreign. The statistics of attendance of the largest museum complexes in Europe are analyzed, which indicates a powerful coverage of museum tourism. It is found that museums are one of the most visited centers of economic growth and the revival of society, which goes far beyond the traditional analysis of economic impact. The growing cooperation between museums and tourism is emphasized, which is based on the accumulation in museums of historical and cultural heritage, which acts as a factor in the socio-cultural and tourist development of individual states and regions. The presented dynamics of the growth of museum attendance indicate a correlation between the success of art, culture and economic, in particular, strategic tourism successes of states or individual regions. There is a clear belief that one of the ways for museums to adapt to modern tourism demand is to strategically change the perception of visitors. Museums have become more competitive for family and entertainment audiences and more technologically advanced, they have also included thematic entertainment and design tools. Analyzing global museum visits, we can say that tourists create such a dynamic picture that sometimes museum locations literally do not have time to satisfy tourists' preferences to the maximum. To maximize the number of visitors, museums should actively implement segmentation of the target audience by the region in which they are located.