Social motivations such as ‘spending quality time with family or friends’ often rank highest as a motivation to visit museums and galleries. We often see this in visitor research. A recent UK study also supports this - ‘to do something sociable’ was the main reason for participating in arts or heritage in person. And in a US study having a shared experience with friends and family was ‘the best thing about visiting a zoo, aquarium or museum’ for many.

This shared experience can be the exhibits, and, as now widely accepted, the cafe and the shop are part of the experience as well. However, these are often looked at mainly through a revenue generation lens. While this is useful, they also contribute significantly to wellbeing.

In our pilot project of measuring wellbeing value, our Wellbeing Calculator© analysis showed that visitors derived wellbeing from visiting the exhibition and it increased for those who also visited the museum café and visited the museum shop. This shows how wellbeing is hidden in many places in museums.