Valuing congestion costs in small museums: the case of the Rubenshuis Museum in Antwerp Juliana Salazar Borda Master Cultural Economics & Cultural Entrepreneurship Faculteit der Historische en Kunstwetenschappen Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam [email protected] Supervisor: Dr. F.R.R. Vermeylen Second Reader: Dr. A. Klamer 2007 Summary Within the methodological framework of Contingent Valuation (CV), the purpose of this research was to find in the Rubenshuis Museum the ‘congestion cost’ or the amount visitors are willing to pay in order to avoid too many people inside. A number of 200 site interviews with museum visitors, either entering or leaving the museum, were made. The analysis of the results showed a strong tendency of visitors to prefer not congested situations. However, their WTP more for the ticket was low (€1.33 in average). It was also found that if visitors were women, were older, were better educated and had a bad experience at the museum, the WTP went up. In addition, those visitors who were in their way out of the museum showed a higher WTP than those ones who were in their way in. Other options to diminish congestion were also asked to visitors. Extra morning and night opening hours were the most popular ones among the sample, which is an alert to the museum to start thinking in improving its services. The Rubenshuis Museum is a remarkable example of how congestion can be handled in order to have a better experience. That was reflected in the answers visitors gave about congestion. In general, even if the museum had a lot of attendance, people were very pleased with the experience and they were amply capable to enjoy the collection. 2 Table of Contents List of Tables and Graphics …...…………………..………………..4 I. Introduction ………………………………………………………….....5 II. Literature Review ……………………………………………………...9 a. Congestion and Charging Fees ………………………………...…9 b. Why CV? Which are its Pros and Cons? ..................................12 c. Implementation of CV on Cultural Goods: Noonan (2003) …...16 d. Implementation of CV on Museums …………………...…..…....17 III. Definition of the Valuation Problem ………………………..…….20 IV. Museum Rubenshuis in Antwerp ……………………..………..…22 a. Rubens’ life and the Museum ….….……………………………..22 b. My experience at the Museum …..………………………………30 V. The Survey: Descriptive Statistics …………………………….....34 VI. Conversation with Mr. Ben van Beneden, Curator of the Rubenshuis …………………………………………………………...45 VII. Econometric Analysis: Theoretical model and results ……….49 VIII. Conclusions …………………………………………………….….....54 IX. References …………………………………………………………….59 X. Acknowledgments …...…………………………………………......62 XI. Appendices ……………………………………………………………63 3 List of Tables and Graphics Table 1. Rubenshuis Museum Information ….……………..…...……………...28 Graphic 1. Rubenshuis Museum: Number of visitors per year …………..….29 Table 2. Results: Socio-demographic section. Survey to 200 going in and out the museum.…………………………………………………...…………………...36 Table 2a. Socio-demographic characteristics of the Museum Rubenshuis visitors……………………………………………………………….……………...37 Table 3. Results of the Survey: 100 people going into the museum…...........38 Table 4 . Results of the Survey: 100 people going out the museum………….40 Table 5 . Results of the Survey: 200 people in and out the museum.….........43 Graphic 2 . WTP of the whole sample.….……………………………...……….43 Graphic 3 . WTP of the going in group.………………………………………….44 Graphic 4. WTP of the going out group.………………………………………..44 Table 6 . Logistic Regression Analysis on WTP.………………………..………52 4 I. Introduction “Museums are potentially congestible resources because the exhibits they contain are, in any relevant sense of the word, irreproducible” (Maddison & Foster, 2003) Congestion is a common adjective when one is referring to visit a museum, especially if it is a very famous one like the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam or the Louvre in Paris. Even though those are wonderful museums, it can be said that, because of the huge number of visitors they attract every day, the experience may be affected. Congestion or overcrowding may result in uncomfortable incidents such as queuing, noises and at the end in a failure to enjoy the paintings. In smaller museums those incidents can be even more uncomfortable, especially in those ones which are located in original houses like the Maurithuis Museum in The Hague or the Rubenshuis Museum in Antwerp. Those museums try to preserve the houses in their original conditions and the exhibition of the collection is shown in small rooms where having just a few people inside can diminish considerable the experience one may have. Thus, there may be some people who are willing to pay more for the ticket in order to exclude some visitors and, in that way, avoid congestion. From an economic perspective, this extra amount that people may be willing to pay is a cost that visitors impose on each other. Within the methodological framework of Contingent Valuation (CV), the purpose of this research is to find in a selected small museum the ‘congestion cost’ or the amount visitors are willing to pay in order to avoid too many people inside. The research also wants to identify what determines if people are willing to pay or not. Is it the age? The gender? A bad experience at the museum? In addition, the paper wants to explore other possibilities that could 5 lead to diminish congestion such as: 1) visitors just pay for the time they spend inside the museum (like in a parking lot); 2) tickets are booked in advance with specific date and hour (time slots); 3) extra morning opening hours; 4) extra night opening hours. The CV method is the most commonly used to estimate public goods such as cultural goods and cultural heritage. The CV consists in asking through a survey questionnaire to a sample of population what is their willingness to pay (WTP) for specific non-marketed goods. With this mechanism, individuals can communicate the value they place on a public good and in that way they are revealing their individual demand (Cuccia, 2003). The final aim of the survey is to have an estimation of the benefits (or costs) of a change in the level of provision of some public good (Mitchell & Carson, 1989). It is called ‘contingent’ valuation, because people are asked to state their WTP, contingent on a hypothetical scenario, which in the case of this specific research is congestion inside a museum. This thesis is the second attempt in using valuation methods for exploring congestion costs in museums. The first attempt was the valuation of the congestion cost in the British Museum of London made by Maddison and Foster (2003) which is explained in the next section. The selected small museum for this research was the Rubenshuis in Antwerp which was the original home and studio of the seventeenth century Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). In addition to the Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam and the residences of El Greco in Toledo, Michelangelo in Florence and Vasari in Arezzo, no other artists' original homes of this quality still subsist nowadays 1. The analysis focused its attention on the current users of the museum. A number of 200 site interviews with museum visitors, either going in or out, were made. About the experience inside the museum, surprisingly for a small 1 Source: Rubenshuis Museum webpage: http://museum.antwerpen.be/rubenshuis/ 6 popular museum, most of the visitors didn’t find it as a noisy, congested or uncomfortable place. In general, people were very pleased with the experience and they were amply capable to enjoy the collection. These answers may result from the efforts the museum has made to solve the problem of congestion and to guarantee a better experience. One of them is the pavilion built outside the museum, which separating the sales from the main entrance, helps to have a more controlled and organized flow of visitors. Other effort is the free audio guide. Practically every body takes it and, in addition to guarantee a quality experience thanks to the information it gives, it helps visitors to be quiet and focused in what they are listening. Thus, people may not feel annoyed by the fact they are surrounded by others. The analysis of the results showed a strong tendency of visitors to prefer not congested situations. However, their WTP more for the price of the ticket was low. In average, those visitors who cared about congestion will be willing to pay €1.33 extra which included those ones with a WTP=0. Without including the WTP=0 answers, the average amount increased to €4.64. It was also found that the WTP goes up if visitors were women, were older, were better educated and had a bad experience at the museum. In addition, those visitors who were in their way out of the museum showed a higher WTP than those ones who were in their way in. The options related to extra opening hours were the most popular ones among the sample, which is an alert to the museum to start thinking in improving its services. The content of the research is as follows: The second section has a review of the literature of the economics of museums. It contains different economic studies that mention the discussion on entrance fees and congestion. It also includes some pros and cons of the use of the CV methodology and a few examples of works that have used contingent valuation in museums as a tool of valuating non-tradable goods. The third section introduces the concept of “superstar museums” and defines the valuation problem. The forth section gives a brief description of the museum under study. The fifth section contains the application of the CV method to the museum mentioned and shows the results of the survey. A transcription of a conversation with the Curator of the 7 Rubenshuis is shown in the sixth section which contains an interesting discussion of the changes that have been implemented so far and the flexibility the museum has to implement future changes.