The museum of the future. An analysis from the visitors' perspective.

The social role of museums has long been part of the academicdebate: different disciplines and fields of knowledge have exploredthe social shift of museums and have re-envisioned their future.However, little attention has been paid to the views of visitors onthe future of museums. This article addresses this issue by adopting an audience development approach. It analyses a questionnaireadministered to 685 visitors to 16 Spanish museums between Octoberand December 2019. The findings revealed that the audience believedthat museums should offer a vision that respects cultural diversity,and provide enriching and memorable experiences, while at the sametime defending the classic values of cultural heritage, among others.Women and visitors that gave more importance to the practice ofvisiting museums than to other cultural practices were found to bethe most demanding visitor segments.