Alta Museum as a tourist attraction: the importance of location

Abstract

The present article uses the example of the Alta Museum to discuss how museums have become dependent on tourism as a necessary source of income. This dependency has often been regarded as a challenge to the scholarly quality of the exhibits. The article argues that the involvement in tourism has less impact on what is represented by the museum and more on how the museum needs to represent the exhibition and its context. The article discusses the possible conflicts and contradictions between the traditional ideology of museums and modern tourism. The Alta Museum is then analysed in order to demonstrate how the museum is involved in a tourism system in which location is vital. The last part of the article analyses the Alta Museum in relation to the concepts of McDonaldisation and Disneyization. This analysis reveals the importance for museums to adapt to modes of productions that are familiar to international tourists. Museums thus become spaces for having a ‘good time’.

Keywords:

• museum
• consumption
• northern Norway
• tourism

Notes

In addition to this group, there is a category of children in groups that visit the museum. In the summer months, they numbered 1112. These children are probably schoolchildren since most of the visits were in June, when schools are still open.

Statistics kindly provided by the Alta Museum.