Museum districts

Cultural clusters seem to have a leading role in urban and cultural policy decisions. In recent years, more and more cultural clusters attract investments, in the hope that as an accentual part of the considered-to-be-booming cultural sector, these investments would be profitable on the long run. Such promising effects can be attributed to the development in the related cultural industries, to the growth in the tourism, accommodation and food service sector, moreover to the revitalization of city parts. For instance, if a region decides to support or develop a museum cluster in order to make the area more attractive for tourists, such decision can determine the cultural policy for years, as it is currently the case in Budapest, Hungary. The project of organizing a museum district requires several changes in the urban circumstances, cultural system and a well-developed management team, in order to successfully reorganize the image of the city and attract more tourists. But what is the exact influence of a museum district to tourism? In this thesis, I applied a mixed method analysis to answer this question. In the quantitative part, I am investigating the measurable factors that can contribute to the possibility that a region decides to develop a museum district. Based on the findings, the actual impact on tourism can be examined, but unfortunately the model I use is not without limitations. Changes in social, historical and political circumstances cannot be measured, but it turned out that they are indeed important factors. Thus, in a qualitative part I am comparing three cases of museum districts. The findings of the analysis shows that museum districts influences tourism significantly, in a positive way. But it is almost impossible to forecast its success, as it depends on special circumstances.