Management strategies for museum night opening in China: a SWOT-TOWS analysis of Shanghai museums

Abstract

In China, the concept of Museum Night Opening, which involves keeping museums open to the public beyond regular daytime hours, has gained popularity since its inception in 2019. However, its implementation has posed both social benefits and operational challenges. This study aims to develop management strategies for Museum Night Opening in China, using a regional perspective centered on Shanghai. A systematic review of Shanghai cases spanning from 2007 to August 2023 was conducted for the development status. A SWOT-TWOS analysis was further employed for the development environment and management strategies. The internal management strategies (WO & WT) emphasize aspects such as human resources, finance, and materials to ensure smooth night operations. Meanwhile, the external management strategies (SO & ST) focus on the audience orientation and crossover collaboration to enhance nighttime experiences. Through management strategy planning, Chinese museums can establish Museum Night Opening as a high-quality initiative in a sustainable manner.

Keywords:

• Museum
• night opening
• management strategies
• SWOT analysis
• TWOS matrix

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Dr Pier Luigi Sacco, Gabriele d’Annunzio University of Chieti and Pescara, Italy

SUBJECTS:

• Culture
• Heritage Management & Conservation
• Events Management
• Strategic Management
• Operations Management
• Sport and Leisure Management
• Sport and Leisure Studies

Introduction

Museum night opening refers to a continuous open of museums to the public after daytime (usually from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). ‘The Night of Museums’ originated in Europe at the end of the 20th century, starting with the Lange Nacht der Museen at the Berlin Museum in 1997. With support from UNESCO, the Council of Europe and ICOM, ‘the Night of Museums’, a collaborative museum event offering free admission until midnight, has been held annually in 41 European countries since 2005 (Dumbraveanu et al., 2014). In the 21st century, landmark museums worldwide have adopted regular night openings throughout the year as an innovation of opening for the public. For example, the British Museum has night openings on Fridays, the Louvre on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fridays and Saturdays. Moreover, many strategy studies have explored the potential contributions of museum night opening. Existing research on ‘The Night of Museums’ has revealed its impact on tourism (Bjeljac et al., 2011; Dumbraveanu et al., 2014), economy (Shaw, 2014; Stockman, 2018), and culture (Antoine-Faúndez & Carmona-Jímenez, 2015). From the audience’s perspective, nighttime experience (Gordin & Dedova, 2014; Germain, 2016), visitor motivation (Ayeon et al., 2020), and audience development (Mavrin & Glavaš, 2014; Easson & Leask, 2019) have also attained great importance in strategy planning of museum night opening.

Chinese museums have sporadically experimented with night openings since the beginning of the 21st century. The earliest recorded instance was the opening ceremony of Jin, Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasty at the Shanghai Museum in 2002. In 2016, the Nanjing Museum opened at night for the first time on International Museum Day, attracting over 5,000 visitors. The successful initiation encouraged many museums across China to hold annual night openings on International Museum Day. Subsequently, the number of museum night openings in China steadily increased, reaching a peak in the summer of 2019, with at least 50 museums participating. It is important to note that Chinese museums differ from European museums in terms of institutional attributes, management systems, and operational modes. While both prioritize social benefits, European museums place greater emphasis on the direct benefits derived from the night economy, and Chinese museums focus more on the social impact of extended opening hours. This difference in focus may be attributed to the predominant influence of government policies driving museum night openings in China, whereas in the West, they are more driven by the museums’ own services or revenue needs (Duan, 2017).

The trial of night openings has gradually expanded to different regions, types, and levels of museums. Despite the growth, there remains considerable distance to establish a comprehensive management model due to limited initial experience. As a result, most studies in China have focused on the practical dilemmas of museum night openings and have explored strategies for improving management. Before 2019, Chinese studies proposed management approaches regarding basic safeguards, pilot testing, and institution selection for night openings on the issues of heritage safety, staff adjustment, and content innovation (Huang & Liao, 2017; Xu, 2017). After 2019, case studies emphasized the themes, segmentation, highlights, and collaborative creativity of night openings (Zhang & Wei, 2019). Some attempts were made to establish museum night tour alliances at the government and institution levels to facilitate optimization (Ma & Jin, 2020; Xue, 2021). In comparison to the management types of ‘The Night of Museums’ in Europe, the practical path was revealed, involving government-led planning, night service guarantees, and comprehensive upgrades (Xiao & Huang, 2022). The case study of Nanjing Museum Administration also explored measures such as user profiling, public communication, and policy support (Xie, 2022). Other studies proposed the principle of balancing increase and decrease as a guideline for managing museum night openings, an idea initially proposed by Cheng (2015) and reinforced by Zheng (2020) to address operational problems.

Overall, previous studies have reflected the ongoing efforts to address the practical and operational aspects of museum night openings in China, suggesting various approaches and strategies for management improvement. However, there are still research gaps that result from a lack of systematic exploration. Firstly, existing studies tend to focus on the night opening of museums in China as a whole, without considering the unique development environments and characteristics of regional night openings. Secondly, most research primarily addresses the practical dilemmas of museum night opening, overlooking the broader meaning and value that night openings can bring. Thirdly, while proposed measures may appear feasible in the short term, there is a lack of long-term strategic planning, leading to ongoing management challenges and pressures. Fourthly, many case studies lack a critical comparison with international cases and reference to excellent practices, resulting in overly subjective approaches to implementation. Additionally, as museum night opening is a research topic at the operational level, it is essential to clarify the central role of museums and focus on the professional perspective of museology, addressing both internal and external institutional orientations.

This study aims to develop management strategies for museum night opening in China from a regional perspective——Shanghai, a first-tier city in eastern China. In recent years, the development of Shanghai’s museum programs has been effective, with 159 museums on record and an average of about 150,000 people owning a museum. It also features diversity of museum types, including landmark museums such as the Shanghai Museum, industrial museums such as the Shanghai Automobile Museum, and district-level museums in the suburbs. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of Shanghai cases for the development status, and further employed a SWOT-TWOS analysis to evaluate the development environment and management strategies.

Methodology

To summarize the regional experience of museum night opening in Shanghai, this study analyzes the development status, development environment, and management strategies separately. In Section 3, the night opening cases of Shanghai museums were examined to gain a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the regional status of museum night opening. In Section 4, a basic SWOT analysis was used to assess the development environment for museum night opening in Shanghai. Section 5 integrated the SWOT analysis with the TOWS matrix to formulate management measures for the night operation of Shanghai museums, ultimately contributing to the development of museum night opening in China. The research methods employed are discussed in detail in the following.

Case study

The issue of museum night opening is rooted in the operational level of institutions with practical significance. Therefore, conducting a systematic case study lays a foundation for this research. The examples primarily relied on public records, including official websites or official microblogs of Shanghai museums, the official website of the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau, and various social media reports. There were 119 regional cases spanning from 2007 to August 2023, which involved a total of 64 Shanghai museums (Supplementary Table S1). Each case was carefully analyzed in terms of opening hours, frequency, and specific approaches, leading to the development status of museum night openings in Shanghai.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning and management technique proposed by American management scientist Albert Humphrey in the early 1960s (Hill & Westbrook, 1997). The term SWOT represents four components of analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (Gürel & Tat, 2017). Strengths are characteristics that give the project an advantage over others. Weaknesses are characteristics that place the project at a disadvantage relative to others. Opportunities are elements in the environment that the project could exploit to its advantage. Threats are elements in the environment that may cause trouble for the project. Strengths (S) and Weaknesses (W) are typically considered internal factors, while Opportunities (O) and Threats (T) are considered external factors (Minsky & Aron, 2021).

SWOT analysis can offer a comprehensive understanding of the internal and external environment of museum night openings in Shanghai, highlighting both positive and negative characteristics. Museums should take SWOT factors into account when formulating strategic plans for night operation and management. The similar method has been widely employed in the strategy studies of museums, including the issues of segmentation (Pebrianggara et al., 2018), digital transformation (Ponsard & Desmet, 2022) and architecture (Zhang, 2011).

TOWS matrix

TOWS matrix, introduced by Weihrich (1982), is an analytical tool that combines each component of SWOT with another to examine four distinct strategies: WT, WO, ST and SO. The WT strategy (Mini-Mini) aims to how to minimize both weaknesses and threats. The WO strategy (Mini-Maxi) aims to how to minimize the weaknesses and maximize the opportunities. The ST strategy (Maxi-Mini) aims to how to minimize the threats and maximize the strengths. The SO strategy (Maxi-Maxi) aims to how to maximize both opportunities and strengths. The SWOT-TOWS analysis is thus integrated to develop a strategy plan in a general format of a 2 × 2 matrix (Pickton & Wright, 1998).

Although SWOT analysis is commonly used in museum marketing, operational planning, and program evaluation, TOWS matrix is rarely utilized in museum strategic planning. Given that Chinese museum night openings are still in the early stages of development, employing a scientific approach of SWOT-TOWS analysis to derive management strategies can lay a strategic foundation for the progression towards higher quality and speed. Wojciechowski and Hadaś (2020) and Escalona et al. (2022) have employed a methodology similar to that used in the present study.

Development status of museum night opening in Shanghai

According to the annual report of Shanghai museums (2021), a total of 65 out of 158 Shanghai museums had trials of night opening, and they have even established certain experience of night operation. Based on the systematic case studies, both the horizontal development landscape and the vertical development trend are presented, together reflecting the regional development status of museum night openings in Shanghai.

Horizontal development landscape

Opening time

There are primarily three concentrated time of museum night openings in Shanghai (Figure 1). The most concentrated is the summertime, from July to August, which accounts for about 35% of the total number of night cases (approximately 16% in July and 19% in August). The second is around International Museum Day, representing approximately 31% of the cases. Additionally, some museums tend to open at night on holidays and weekends. For instance, the night openings in October are primarily concentrated during the ‘Golden Week’ of the National Day, accounting for 12% of the cases.

Figure 1. Opening time for museum night openings in Shanghai.

Institutional property

In the early years, it was mostly non-state museums that engaged in night opening, such as the AURORA Museum and Shanghai Pen and Ink Museum. However, state-owned museums gradually joined the night opening trend. Since 2015, the number of state-owned museums participating in night opening has exceeded that of non-state-owned ones, and this gap has continued to widen over the years (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Institutional property for museum night openings in Shanghai.

Opening approaches

There are mainly three types of night opening: late opening, night events, and sleep-over programs (Figure 3). Late opening, which extends the closing time of museums, is implemented in museums of all levels and types, and can be considered the basic form of night openings. Night events refer to hosting educational or public cultural events at night, with over 70% of regional cases having attempted this approach. Sleep-over programs involve staying up in museums, and this type is relatively rare in Chinese museums. Based on the regional case analysis, only four museums in Shanghai have offered overnight experiences in their night opening. For example, the Shanghai Glass Museum introduced the sleep-over program as early as 2014, which remained a popular program in the museum’s night events.

Figure 3. Opening approaches for museum night openings in Shanghai.

Opening content

The highlight of opening content is closely related to the chosen opening approach. Late openings generally emphasize exhibitions as the major, making the night experience a continuation of the daytime visit. Notably, the late openings of the Shanghai Museum focused on special exhibitions, such as A History of the World in 100 Objects and Sissy and Hungary: The Magnificent Life of Hungarian Aristocracy in the 17–19th Century in 2017, The Making of China: The Civilizations of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties in 2022, and Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London in 2023. On the other hand, when night events are the main attraction, the nighttime experiences serve as an extension of the daytime visit, including visiting guides, lectures and salons, educational activities, interactive experiences, opening and closing ceremonies, music and art performances, and dinner receptions.

Opening objects and admission

The majority of state-owned museums not only open at night free of charge but also offer nighttime discounts for arts and crafts and dining. In contrast, non-state museums usually have fee-based night openings with preferential nighttime ticket prices. Sleep-over programs, however, always come with a fee due to the higher costs of staying overnight in museums. Moreover, a few museums offer nightly admission specifically for target audiences, such as museum members, group organizations of teachers and doctors, and guests from foreign consulates.

Vertical development trend

Increasing scale

The scale of museum night openings in Shanghai has experienced huge growth (Figure 4) since the collective opening of 30 museums on International Museum Day in 2013. The most significant surge occurred in 2019, with a substantial number of museum night openings that gained recognition from the public. Nevertheless, the number of night openings in Shanghai declined between 2021 and 2022, primarily due to the impact of closures and flow restrictions imposed by the epidemic.

Figure 4. Numbers of museum night openings in Shanghai (2013–2023).

Normalization

Museum night openings in Shanghai go towards normalization, of which the frequency tends to be regular. Museums with night operational experience are making efforts to establish periodic and consistent night openings. Normalization first appeared in non-state-owned museums, and gradually expanded to state-owned museums later. For example, the AURORA Museum started hosting ‘Night for White Collar’ every Friday in 2013. In the summer of 2019, 14 state-owned museums in Shanghai extended their opening hours from Fridays to Sundays. This number increased to 31 museums in 2021 and 45 museums in 2020.

Innovative approach and content

The approaches and contents of museum night openings in the region have witnessed an innovative expansion. Initially, museum night openings mainly involved extending the opening hours. As the basic night openings received positive responses from audiences, museums started organizing night events. Educational activities originally scheduled for weekends during the day have been transformed into nighttime events on weekdays. Additionally, the museum nighttime experiences have been enriched with art performances, cultural salons, and comprehensive nights featuring exhibitions, cultural creations, and catering. The emergence of sleep-over programs has also brought innovation to late hours.

Branding and seriation

Branding and seriation play vital roles in promoting the benefits of museum night openings. As night openings become popular and normalized, avoiding homogenization becomes crucial. Expert museums have taken the lead in this regard. For instance, the Shanghai Glass Museum initiated a National Day Carnival in 2016, which later evolved into an annual Golden Night brand event with increased visibility. By considering the characteristics of branding and seriation in strategy planning, museum night openings can attract audiences in enhanced quantity and quality.

Development environment of museum night opening in Shanghai

To condense the development status into practical experience, the characteristics of the regional development environment needs further understood. SWOT analysis is then employed, clarifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of museum night opening in Shanghai (Table 1).

Table 1. SWOT analysis of museum night openings in Shanghai.

Strengths	Weaknesses
S1. Enrichment of museum contextual experience S2. Highlight of audience orientation	W1. Increased security risks and management difficulties W2. Higher management costs and insufficient funding W3. Limited management capacity and motivation
Opportunities	Threats
O1. Promotion of regional night economy O2. Integration of culture and tourism in the post-epidemic era	T1. Industry competition in cultural services T2. Museum competition in homogeneous night openings

Strengths

Modern museums primarily function as public cultural service institutions operating during the daytime. In other words, museum night openings may not inherently benefit from operational conditions. However, the display and interpretation of museums have significant impacts on the contextual experience and audience orientation, thus serving as strengths in the development environment.

Enrichment of museum contextual experience

One of the strengths is strongly manifested in the museum contextual experience during nighttime. The concept of museum night opening is rooted in the idea of bringing cultural relics to life and revitalizing static displays in the night atmosphere. Objects generally contain three interpretive contexts: the primary context, archaeological context, and museum context (Mensch, 1992). Traditional exhibitions often remove objects from their primary context and places them within the museum context for artifact-oriented displays. In the object-oriented museologies, museality is the knowledge-acquiring intention, conceived in the context of the entire historic, present and future social function (Stransky, 1974, 1980).

Modern exhibitions aim to extend from ‘musealia’ to the concern for ‘museality’ (Desvall & Mairesse, 2010), thereby devoting to the contextualized interpretation of objects. In this regard, a new endeavor is made to reproduce the primary context of objects in the museum context. According to the Contextual Model of Learning (Falk & Dierking, 2000), contexts can facilitate or hinder learned behaviors, because learning is context specific and appears to be enveloped and situated within a physical context. It has proven to be a useful way for not only conceptualizing learning, but also for creating effective museum experiences (Falk & Dierking, 2012). Therefore, when the primary context is mysterious, somber, and silent, the physical context of museums at night is conducive to make contextualized interpretations and create contextual experience. The nighttime ambiance can also influence visitors’ perception of exhibits, enriching the contextual experience for visitor-object encounters.

Highlight of audience orientation

Audience orientation plays a crucial role in the development of museum night openings. For studying the museum as a historically grown social phenomenon, the focal point of museological theory, i.e. the object of knowledge, shifted from institution (Razgon, 1978) to activities (Razgon, 1988). In this regard, both late opening of exhibitions and special night events can promote the social and cultural functions of museums to a certain extent. For instance, the campaign Overnight at the Smithsonian was inspired by visitors’ curiosity about what happens to the museum when it is closed (Ayeon et al., 2020). The night opening of Chinese museums is also driven by social benefits and audience demands. The Liu Haisu Art Museum opened at night specifically for white-collar workers based on a survey of young audiences in nearby office buildings.

Moreover, audience orientation can empower museums to facilitate cultural exchange and exert social influence through night events. For cultural exchange, the Shanghai Museum collaborated with the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office to organize night events for special exhibitions. For social support, both the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and the Shanghai Natural History Museum held night events for medical workers during the epidemic. Through targeting specific groups and offering public services, the night opening helps to transform museums into a cultural exchange platform and further exert the social influence of institutions.

Weaknesses

The transition from exclusive daytime openings to nighttime has posed new challenges for institutions. The operational conditions that ensured smooth daytime openings may not be entirely suitable for night openings. Since the night opening of Shanghai museums has relatively advanced development status and trend characteristics in China, the weakness and problems based on regional cases can be predictive and typical. As Chinese museums experimented with night openings, they faced with more management requirements and complexities. The ongoing dilemma of nighttime operations for Chinese museums, including those in Shanghai, need conquering.

Increased security risks and management difficulties

The primary weakness is the heightened security risks and the associated management difficulties, particularly regarding the safety and conservation of cultural relics. Most collections have strict requirements for light intensity, temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration. The extended display hours during night openings present additional challenges for the preservation of exhibits. For instance, the light intensity of Botticelli to Van Gogh at the Shanghai Museum was technically reduced from 200 lux to 160 lux to protect the paintings (Li, 2023). Even though there are no safety incidents or side effects on relic conservation in intermittent or short-term night openings, the lack of a comprehensive plan for the display, conservation, restoration, and security of exhibits during night openings will exacerbate the management difficulties in the long-term development of night openings.

Higher management costs and insufficient funding

Another significant weakness is the increased cost of management and operation, primarily arising from equipment, security, and other resources. The Shanghai Museum, for example, incurred an operating expense of 50,000 RMB for a single night opening, while human resource costs increased as at least 50 to 100 staff members need to work overtime. However, most museums in China, as institutions with fixed staff, do not provide overtime pay, meal allowances, or additional subsidies for extended hours during night openings. This situation limits the ability of museums to have a fully staffed night opening or provide comprehensive night services.

Meanwhile, insufficient funding exacerbates the issue, as state-owned museums, mostly public welfare institutions, have predetermined financial allocations. When the costs of labor and material security for night openings are not included in the financial budget, funds available for night operations will be stretched. Even non-state museums that charge fees for night openings may struggle to cover expenses due to low attendance.

Limited management capacity and motivation

As museum night openings come normalized, the limited capacity and motivation for management are exposed. Despite the increasing scale, there are concerns about whether all museums need night openings and whether they possess the essential conditions for nighttime operations.

In fact, some museums may passively implement night openings as a result of local policy mandates. At the institutional level, limited internal attention and management prevents corresponding adjustments and guarantees in the institutional mechanisms for night operations. At the staff level, limited incentives or subsidies fail to motivate employees to work extended hours voluntarily. In the long run, the lack of internal motivation will hinder the normalization development of museum night openings in China.

Opportunities

The development opportunities for regional museum night openings are derived from macro policy directions and social influences, specifically in the areas of economy, culture, and tourism, as discussed in previous studies.

Promotion of regional night economy

The night economy aims to address the underutilization of urban spaces during nighttime, focusing on revitalizing cities and enhancing their functionality in the stock era (Shaw, 2014). The UK, as the birthplace of the night economy, incorporated it into its national development strategy in the 1990s. In China, the night economy issue was first proposed by the China Tourism Research Institute in 2018, with a development report on China night economy published in the following year (Zhao, 2019).

In the regional context, Shanghai has implemented a series of night economy policies related to museum night openings. The guiding opinions on promoting the development of night economy in Shanghai were first issued in 2019, proposing to establish museum night tours as regular and distinctive nighttime experiences. Subsequently, an implementation plan was put forth to stimulate steady consumption growth, highlighting museum night tours as an approach to build a night consumption demonstration zone in Shanghai (2019). Then, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism released the first list of museum night openings, featuring over 100 museums and galleries. The national Notice on pilot demonstration of cultural and tourism consumption (2020) also encouraged museums to extend opening hours. In 2021, a Three-Year Action Plan (2021–2023) for accelerating the construction of an international consumer center city was launched in Shanghai, which included dedicated actions to promote the night economy and customize museum night events.

Accelerated by policy support, the night opening of Shanghai museums has formed collective impacts on the night economy of the city. The microeconomic benefits include ticket sales for exhibitions and events, as well as income from cultural and creative products and catering services. For instance, the sales of cultural and creative products at the Shanghai Museum generated over 30,000 RMB within three hours and 130 sets of catering packages were sold out, during Spring Blowing in the Wind: Jiangnan Culture Art Exhibition (Li, 2020). Recently Shanghai Museum and Shanghai History Museum have expanded the scope of night fees to include guided courses, cultural salons, interactive performance, open-air theatre, and catering services, both introducing innovative revenue models for state-owned museums in the night openings.

Integration of culture and tourism in the post-epidemic era

The cultural tourism consumption in China has been negatively impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19, resulting in a decline in international and cross-provincial tourism (Shen, 2020). Revitalizing cultural tourism through cross-border cooperation is of the priority (Chen et al., 2020). In the post-epidemic context, there is increased attention on the innovation of urban cultural tourism, with night tours emerging as a potential approach to be explored.

In recent years, national and municipal policies have recognized the importance of nighttime cultural services, leading to the development of museum night tours. The national Opinions on promoting the high-quality development of public cultural services (2021) encouraged to stagger and extend opening hours, and develop night services. Later, the Shanghai government released the three-year action plan (2021–2023) for deepening the construction of an international cultural metropolis, with a focus on museum and gallery night tours. As public cultural services keep improving, museum night openings contribute to the local cultural ecology, adding warmth and human connection during nighttime.

Based on the opportunities presented by the night economy and night culture, the night opening of Shanghai museums has become an innovative initiative to integrate culture and tourism resources in the post-epidemic era. In 2021, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism proposed the construction of a nighttime cultural tourism consumption demonstration zone, taking museum resources into account. Lately, the Great Museum Plan (2022–2025), proposed by the Shanghai Museum (2022), has actively encouraged cooperation between museums and cultural and tourism institutions to promote cross-border integration. Despite the epidemic impact, the potential of museum night openings remains to be utilized as an integration of cultural and tourism resources.

Threats

Museums face several external threats in the emerging development of nighttime services, which arise both within and outside the museum sector.

Industry competition in cultural services

External threats mainly stem from competition with other cultural services such as cinemas, theaters, 24-hour bookstores, study rooms, and night markets. Museum night openings have gained prominence in the night economy of other countries. For example, the night economy strategy of London incorporates museum culture, bar culture, all-night subways, and safe nightlife; museums and galleries in New York accounted for 41% of the night out locations (Ai Media, 2018 & 2021). In comparison, museum night openings are not significant enough in the cultural services industry of China. The Night Economy Report of China (Zhao, 2020) indicated that the attractiveness index of museum night events was relatively low at 7.9 points, compared to performances (47.8), cultural institutions (47.7), cultural fairs (37.2), and 24-hour bookstores (24.1). The competition has shown a fierce tendency in recent years (Ai Media, 2023). Although exhibitions rank third in the preferred nighttime activities for the youth, museum night tours are not commonly included in their recreational options. Furthermore, the top five nighttime destinations for the middle-aged and elderly do not typically include museums. In the competition with other leisure cultural services, it is crucial for museums to stand out in the nighttime cultural service ecology.

Museum competition in homogeneous night openings

The competition among museum institutions is increasingly fierce. While the night openings of Shanghai museums have achieved a large scale and regular frequency, a homogeneous problem has emerged, with more than 10% of museum night events titled ‘Museum Magic Night’ in the form of guided tours and lectures. There is also a mismatch between supply and demand, with overnight experiences ranking third in demand but fifth in supply (Zhao, 2019). Building a distinct brand based on the mission, vision, collections, and architectural characteristics of museums has become a significant challenge to the success of night openings.

Management strategies for museum night openings in China

In the SWOT analysis of museum night openings in Shanghai, the Strengths have the regularity in theoretical sense; the Weaknesses have the typicality in the problem orientation; the Opportunities highlight the advance of regional policy advocacy and implementation; and the Threats show the predictability of development to a certain stage. Therefore, the regional experience holds the potential to inspire the development of Chinese museums. Drawing upon the development environment of Shanghai museums, management strategies for museum night openings in China are further planned through a TOWS matrix (Table 2). The WT, WO, SO, and ST strategies are all centered around museums and aim to guide their management and operation in the context of night openings.

Table 2. TOWS matrix for museum night openings in China.

WT Strategies (Mini-Mini)	SO Strategies (Maxi-Maxi)
WT1. Establish and regulate a management mechanism. WT2. Improve personnel incentives and leverage social support.	SO1. Develop multiple nighttime experiences and cultural services. SO2. Develop core audiences for night tours.
WO Strategies (Mini-Maxi)	ST Strategies (Maxi-Mini)
WO1. Optimize input and output through formation evaluations. WO2. Self-fulfill benefits to seek funding foundations and external sources.	ST1. Enhance collaboration between institutions. ST2. Explore night openings beyond museums.

WT strategies

Establish and regulate a management mechanism

For the sustainable development of museum night openings, it is crucial to establish and regulate a management mechanism, encompassing the selection and implementation processes.

Firstly, a selection mechanism needs to be established as not all museums are suited for night openings. Therefore, it is essential to determine which museums have the necessary operating conditions during nighttime. The selection criteria shall focus on ensuring the security of cultural relics. Technically, such selection mechanism was piloted in Shanghai that over 100 museums were initially considered, and 14 museums were ultimately selected to participate in the regular night openings.

Secondly, the regulation of an implementation mechanism for museum night operations is necessary. Intelligent management systems, such as the office automation (OA) and city network system, can facilitate the resource coordination across institutions and departments during nighttime, thus enhancing the efficiency of museum night operations. Additionally, in case of security incidents during museum night openings, the management mechanism allows for timely responses through the implementation of emergency plans.

Improve personnel incentives and leverage social support

The internal motivation of museum night openings plays a crucial role in the long-term development. Therefore, it is important to adjust the working hours of night opening in a reasonable manner. This can be achieved through a split shift system, such as morning and evening shifts, as well as an overtime transfer strategy. Incentives, such as performance bonuses or benefits, should be provided to employees working overtime. While the cost of overtime may not be initially included in the budget, particularly for state-owned museums in China, alternative sources of funding can be utilized to support staff during nighttime operations and maintain their engagement, such as ticket fees and sales income.

Social support for human resources, including volunteers and part-time jobs, is essential for the success of museum night openings. The national guiding opinions on promoting the reform and development of museums emphasized the importance of utilizing social resources in exhibitions (2021). However, there is currently a lack of volunteer involvement in existing night openings. Museum volunteers typically take the responsibilities of reception, orientation, and guided tours during nighttime, which are similar to those during daytime. In addition to full-time workers and volunteers, the extended hours of night openings create opportunities for part-time jobs. This approach has been successfully implemented during the night events at the Power Station of Art and the AURORA Museum.

WO strategies

Optimize input and output through formative evaluations

The key focus of museum night openings should not solely be on the duration and frequency, but rather on finding the optimal solution to meet the demands of nighttime visitors. To achieve this, formative evaluations should be conducted to optimize the input and output of nighttime operations, considering the potential demand of visitors and the quality of nighttime experiences and services offered.

In the preparatory organization of museum night openings, it is essential to conduct trial operations before formal implementations. For instance, Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, the first 24-hour museum in China, opened on a trial basis in April 2022. During the trial period, it operated from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on weekdays and remained open for 24 hours on weekends. Based on the two months of trial operation, the night opening hours were optimized until 10 p.m. on weekdays and 12 p.m. on weekends and holidays.

Additionally, an estimation of income and expenditure during the night trial operation can strive for breaking even or generating a surplus, providing support for human, financial, and material costs. This, in turn, helps reduce the management burden of museum night openings.

Self-fulfill benefits to seek funding foundations and external sources

Regarding the widespread development of night openings, it is of importance to allocate specific funding in the budget as guarantee. Non-state-owned museums, responsible for their own profits or loss, are advised to self-fulfill the benefits of night openings to reduce the burden and potential risks of operations. Meanwhile, seeking support from foundations and external sources is crucial in response to the funding uncertainty and diversity. For example, Museums At Night, the official promoter of the Night of Museums in the UK, used to work with the cultural consultancy Culture 24 to release annual reports on the economic, tourism, cultural, and industry benefits of museum night openings across the UK (Stockman, 2018). As a result, many nights of museums sought external funding and resources, such as the Technology Night of Science Museum in London, which called for brands to fund and organize, and the Copernicus Science Center, which partnered with the Samsung Group for an ‘Adult Night’ event.

So strategies

Develop multiple nighttime experiences and cultural services

To enhance night openings, museums are devoted to developing comprehensive night experiences, combing with the unique advantages in terms of objects, space, and context. The guiding opinions (2021) attached importance to the equalization, convenience, diversity, and personalization of museum public services. These four aspects can be taken into account in the museum night operation and management strategies. As a result, museums should adopt a holistic approach to develop multifaceted nighttime experiences and cultural services, including education, cultural creation, catering, and accommodation.

Firstly, night educational activities often leverage the resource advantage, particularly in natural science museums. For instance, the Shanghai Natural History Museum organized nocturnal animal searches to interpret their different habits, while the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory arranged astronomical activities on celestial days, capitalizing on the geographic location of the Sheshan and its observational equipment. The Shanghai Astronomy Museum, furthermore, recruited teenagers to investigate urban light pollution and dark night protection during nighttime, as an interpretative approach for astronomy science. These educational activities indicate that museums continue functioning as an informal education after daytime.

Secondly, cultural and catering services are also part of museum nighttime experiences. Museums worldwide have introduced restaurants and refreshment rooms at night to offer multi-sensory experiences related to exhibitions or collections. For example, the V&A Museum, the Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint), the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the Rijksmuseum all incorporate such services. In Shanghai, 30 museums had special offers on creative products, catering, and refreshments at night in 2021. The Shanghai Museum further developed nightly taste experiences in conjunction with special exhibitions, such as Jiangnan afternoon tea and Botticelli dinner.

Sleep-over programs in museums present a significant consolidation of object, space, and context advantages. The American Museum of Natural History offered floor sleep-over experiences under a giant blue whale model; the Natural History Museum featured Dino Snores sleep-over program; and the British Museum held monthly or bi-monthly sleepovers with short-term exhibitions or workshops on various topics. Some museums in China have also experimented with sleep-over programs that are well-received by adult and family audiences. Examples include the nighttime LARP games Canal Mystery and Wonderland of Xia Capital at the Luoyang Tomb Museum, Sleeping with Dinosaurs at the Inner Mongolia Natural Museum, and the Tent Night at the Jianchuan Museum. Meanwhile, the concept of museum hotels provides an alternative overnight accommodation within museums, following the examples of the Mercure Lyon Centre Beaux Arts Hotel, the 21c Museum Hotel Louisville, the Museum Hotel in Turkey, and the Museum Art Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand. Museum hotels not only serve as cultural landmarks in the region but also contribute to the tourism economy. In China, some non-state-owned museums have begun collaborating with hotels, such as the Shanghai Glass Museum, the Xi’an Qujiang Art Museum, and the Imperial Kiln Museum in Jingdezhen. This approach facilitates convenient sleepovers and promotes the integration of culture and tourism during nighttime in the region.

Develop core audiences for night tours

Considering that the Night of Museums in Europe initially provided staggered services for visitors who couldn’t visit during the day, museum night openings should be audience-oriented to encourage wider participation of the general public. Therefore, museums can develop core audiences for night tours by offering precise and tailored nighttime experiences and services, thereby enhancing the quality of museum night openings.

In the development of the Chinese night economy, the young and middle-aged groups have formed the leading segment, particularly females, highly educated individuals, high-income earners, and those with children. However, the night opening of Shanghai museums mainly targets children (under 18 years old) and family audience. There are few night events specifically designed for adult audiences, which leaves the young and middle-aged groups with limited options for museum night openings.

Consequently, young and middle-aged people can be identified as the core audiences of museum night openings, who not only represent the backbone of cultural consumption but also possess the potential to become supporters and patrons of museum development. From this perspective, their characteristics, preferences, and anticipations should be fully considered when designing nighttime experiences. For instance, leisure and recreational activities preferred by young people can be developed as museum nighttime experiences integrated with cultural resources, such as cosplay, movies, fitness, and meditation. Audience-oriented supply aims to convert nighttime tourists into loyal core audiences, cultivating their cultural habits of attending museum night tours. By doing so, the core audiences of museum night openings can be transformed into long-term partners, offering valuable demand-side dynamics for the future development of museum night openings.

ST strategies

Enhance collaboration between institutions

Faced with the strengths and threats of night openings, museums seek collaboration within the museum sector to alleviate operational pressure and pool responsive efforts. ‘The Night of Museums’ has created significant gathering effects and cultural dissemination influence by uniting more than 40 European countries to open museums at night. As museum night openings in China move towards normalization, the collaborative effect may grow stronger due to cost and operational considerations——the Shanghai Sinan Open Air Museum has held a ‘Museum Night Party’ for three years, inviting more than ten museums in Shanghai to set up stalls in the open square and carry out night events.

The influence of museum night openings can be enlarged with the help of governmental culture services. In Shanghai, for example, there are several monthly festivals dedicated to ‘Shanghai Culture Brand’ and ‘Shanghai Shopping Brand’, such as Shanghai Nightlife Festival in June, Shanghai Science and Technology Festival in August, and Shanghai Tourism Festival in September. Some museums partnered with regional cultural events to open at night: the China Maritime Museum held a scientific night to explore the polar mysteries during the Shanghai Science and Technology Festival, while the Shanghai Film Museum collaborated with Xuhui District Cultural Tourism Office to host a live night performance Movie Music Legend during the Shanghai Tourism Festival. These collaborations not only enrich the nighttime cultural experiences for visitors but also strengthen the integration of museums with the wider cultural and tourism industries in the city.

Explore night openings beyond museums

Considering the development environment of urban night economy and cultural ecology, the infrastructure and flow of people in public spaces are available for museum night openings. By sharing cultural resources with regional infrastructures, museums can host night events in public spaces, effectively overcoming the hardware and software limitations. This approach also brings museums closer to the public, helping achieve a certain degree of social benefits from night openings.

It is feasible to host night events beyond museums, based on the resource allocation. Guided by the Great Museum Plan (2022) that promotes crossover cooperation, there are a wide range of options for museum-led night openings. For example, the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum originally held the ‘Science Night’ in 2016 to engage the public with science. In 2018, the night event went into public spaces to enhance the interaction between citizens and science, including Shanghai City Planning Museum, Andersen Fairy Tale Park, Changfeng Ocean World, Shanghai Marine Aquarium, Shanghai Auto Museum, and Shanghai Oriental Land.

Moreover, shopping malls, with longer opening hours and higher visitation, offer an alternative for night openings beyond museums. For instance, the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum staged How to Resurrect a Dinosaur in the Shanghai Global Harbor Mall, which remained open until 10 p.m. every day, while the China Silk Museum also staged National Silk: Fashion Museum in the Hangzhou Tower. Even if night openings beyond museums have shown feasibility at the implementation level, there is still a need to ensure the quality and experience of such night events beyond museums in the future.

Internal and external management

The management strategies based on the TOWS matrix are closely related to the development factors identified in the SWOT analysis. In line with the management orientation of museum night openings, the four types of strategies can be further divided into internal management strategies (WO & WT) and external management strategies (SO & ST) to enlighten nationwide promotion and implementation while drawing from regional experiences.

To be more specific, internal management strategies focus on the human, financial, and material aspects of night openings, ensuring the essential operation of museums at night in terms of mechanisms, resources, and operational models. These strategies address the weaknesses and threats faced by museums during night openings and seek opportunities to optimize internal processes and resource allocation. On the other hand, external management strategies consider the demands and preferences of the audiences, exploring collaborations with various sectors of society to enhance the quality of museum night openings in China. These strategies leverage social support, partnerships, and audience-oriented approaches to create engaging and meaningful experiences for visitors during night openings.

Conclusion

This study focuses on the operational issues of museum night openings in China, learning from Shanghai cases and experience to promote the development with management strategies. Through systematic case studies, the development status of museum night openings in Shanghai is reflected in the horizontal and vertical dimensions. The development environment is further analyzed through a SWOT analysis, revealing its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It can be seen that previous studies on museum night openings have covered weaknesses and opportunities, whereas the strengths and threats lack understanding, leaving room for further reinforcement of the overall concept. To deal with the operational dilemma in the practice, a TWOS matrix is employed for strategic planning. The management strategies are divided into internal management (WT & WO) and external management (SO & ST). The internal management concentrates on the human, finance and materials, guaranteeing the basic operation during nighttime in terms of mechanism, resources and models, while the external management emphasizes the audience orientation and crossover collaborations, enhancing the quality of museum night openings in China.

The research findings provide valuable insights for government departments of cultural and tourism, policy makers, sponsors and other stakeholders involved in supporting the cultural sector, with a comprehensive understanding of the development status and internal and external environment of museums night openings. Meanwhile, the findings serve as a practical reference for decision-making on museum night openings at the national and regional levels. By integrating both internal and external management strategies, Chinese museums can create a well-rounded approach to night operations, leading night openings to high-quality and sustainability. It is also vital to acknowledge that the night opening of museums in China is in an ongoing process rather than a singular event. The cases from Shanghai reflect the regular advantages, typical challenges, policy responses and risk warnings in the developing process. On this basis, effective management strategies and approaches have been explored to promote the innovation and optimization of public cultural services, realizing the missions of institutions and the demands of the times.

Despite the clear research objectives and ideal research vision, the management strategies proposed in this study are not entirely drawn from best practice, whose feasibility and effectiveness have to be testified in practice in the future night opening of Chinese museums. There are also some limitations in the case analysis. The cases listed in the supplementary material are primarily based on public records, which are collected through concrete data collection and abstract data procession, and may be missing compared with official data reports (or non-public records are not available).

With regard to the reliability and validity of the SWOT method (Wilson & Gilligan, 2005; Coman & Ronen, 2009), future strategy research on museum night openings can combine with other quantitative research methods, based on the qualitative SWOT-TOWS analysis. For example, by incorporating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) (Kubler et al., 2016), the SWOT-TOWS- AHP analysis can be used to determine the management priorities for museum night openings, which will help in the effective implementation of management strategies and provides indicators for practical decision-making and operational evaluation. Another example is to conduct Importance-Performance Analysis to overcome the limitation of the museum’s perspective (Piercy & Giles, 1989; Phadermrod et al., 2019). The IPA-SWOT-TOWS analysis can illustrate the optimization strategy of museum nighttime experiences and services from the audience’s perspective, thus promoting the responsive development of museum night openings in China.

In conclusion, this study has presented a Chinese perspective on local practice and research regarding museum night openings, along with the ultimate goal of sparking common reflection and vision within the global museum sector——when the night approaches, are museums prepared to open with proper management strategies?

Authors’ contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Tingting Huang, Jun Wei; analysis and interpretation of the data: Tingting Huang; the drafting of the paper: Tingting Huang; revising it critically for intellectual content: Tingting Huang, Jun Wei; and the final approval of the version to be published: Tingting Huang, Jun Wei. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study.

Availability of data and materials

Data can be obtained by contacting the authors.