Much More Than a Museum: Motivations and Experiences of Young Visitors at Urban Cultural Clusters

Statistics show that members of Generation Z (Gen Zers) are less interested in visiting “classic” museums than other age groups. At the same time, young visitors show a noticeable interest in contemporary art and prefer more collaborative formats of interaction with art and culture. Urban cultural clusters (art clusters) and cultural centers could be alternative attractions of potential interest to Gen Zers. Our study aims to identify factors that influence the motivations and the experiences of young visitors at urban cultural clusters and centers. Despite the presence of studies focused on these attractions, researchers have so far paid little attention to the experience of their visitors. We fill this gap with primary data obtained from a series of semi-structured interviews and a survey of young visitors at urban cultural clusters and centers in Moscow, which is well known for a number of such attractions. Based on the collected data, we test several hypotheses using factor and regression analysis. In particular, based on survey data, we measure the role of various factors that bring visitors to an attraction and the features of their visitor experience. Our results show that for Gen Zers information from social media is a key factor in shaping the initial intention to visit a cultural cluster or center. In turn, satisfaction and revisit intention increase if an attraction provides young visitors with more interactive and immersive experiences. Our findings confirm the earlier observation that young generation members want to be not just visitors but co-creators of cultural attractions.