Valuing Congestion Costs in Small Museums

Congestion or overcrowding is a common adjective when one is referring to visit a museum, especially if it is a very famous one. It can be said that, because of the huge number of visitors famous museums attract every day, the experience may be affected because of uncomfortable incidents such as queuing, noises and at the end in a failure to enjoy the collection. In smaller museums those incidents can be even more uncomfortable, especially in those ones which are located in original houses. Those museums try to preserve the houses in their original condition 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 in order to avoid congestion. Actually 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 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 increasing the price of the ticket was low (€1.33 in average). 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. Other options to diminish congestion were also shown to the 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.