Commercial development and competitive environments: the museum sector in Scotland

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) warn local authorities that fail to value the potential role of culture in socio-economic development do so at their peril. The development of a destination's cultural credentials to facilitate economic progress is central to policy geared to regenerate communities in decline and to revitalise financially strapped museums. Within this argument more scrutiny is placed on the skills accountability of the museum profession and their ability to compete in the visitor attraction sector and generate their own sources of income.

This paper considers the competitive position of museums as tourism visitor attractions within a framework of commercial development. The strengths of this paper lean towards qualitative primary sources gathered by the authors during a number of recent heritage development projects. This has influenced the analysis of statistical data gathered in 1999 by the Moffat Centre on behalf of the Scottish Tourist Board's Visitor Attraction Monitor. Concluding paragraphs stress the development of appropriate quality schemes that are flexible enough to accommodate the distinctive Scottish Museum experience as critical.