Postmodern Museum Visitor Experience as a Leisure Activity

Abstract

Relationship between museum and tourism has become an important research field. But research on determining the characteristics of the postmodern museum visitors has not reached a satisfactory level in the area of tourism marketing. In this case study, authors focused on gaining insight into the characteristics of the visitor profile of Yilmaz Buyukersen Wax Museum (YBWM) as a postmodern museum. The study also aims to discover whether there are market segments of visitors who are motivated by the conditions of postmodernism within YBWM's target market. Results underline the fact that motivations and behaviours of postmodern museum visitors acquire a different character. Based on these results, visitors' motivations can be explained under five different motivation dimensions, namely; "Escape", "Hyper Reality", "Technology Fondness", "Socialisation", and "Food and Beverage and Shopping". This study is noteworthy in terms of providing insight into the visitor motivations and visitor profiles of postmodern museums.