The spatial agglomeration of museums, a case study in London

ABSTRACT

Museums play a significant role in urban revival and the tourism development of cities. As part of the cultural industry, the spatial agglomeration of museums becomes important. However, it is an under-researched area. This research uses a combined method of Herfindahl index and Gini Coefficient to analyze the influence of four categories of factors (demand factors, traffic factors, labor cost factors and facilities factors) on the spatial distribution of museums. It uses London as a case study, discussing the spatial distribution and agglomeration of the museums in Greater London. The results prove that a museum agglomeration in Greater London does exist, which is in a distribution of a circular pattern with the city center at the core, meanwhile influenced by the Thames River. It also shows a certain degree of linear distribution of the agglomeration. The results suggest that among the four categories of influencing factors, the demand factors are the robust elements that affect museums’ spatial distribution, which is different from manufacturing and productive services industries. Implications for practice are drawn out.

KEYWORDS:

• Museum
• spatial agglomeration
• influencing factors
• Greater London

Acknowledgement

All authors contributed equally to the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Hongmei Zhang is a professor in the Center for Tourism Development and Planning Research, College of Territorial Resources and Tourism Management at Anhui Normal University, China. Her research interests include consumer behavior in tourism, destination marketing, e-business and cross-cultural studies.

Feifei Xu is a professor and director at the Centre for Ecotourism and Regional Development, Southeast University, China. Her research interests include human nature interactions, ecotourism and cross-cultural issues in tourism marketing.

Lin Lu is a professor and director at the Centre for Tourism Development and Planning Research, College of Territorial Resources and Tourism Management at Anhui Normal University, China. His research interests include tourism geography and tourism management.

Peng Yu is a postgraduate student in tourism management at the College of Territorial Resources and Tourism Management, Anhui Normal University, China. His research interests include consumer behavior in tourism and destination marketing.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Chinese National Science Foundation Key Project [grant no. 41230631], Art and Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [grant no. 12YJAZH189] and the Central Universities Foundation [grant no. 2242015R30020].