Reengineering the Museum's Role in the Tourism Value Chain: Towards an IT Business Model

At the beginning of the 21st century, museums find themselves struggling to maintain audience in competition with an increasing number of leisure and cultural attractions. Their traditional mission is leaving room to a strategic approach in which conservation and marketing harmonize to create new cultural experiences that appeal to leisure consumers and attract sponsors. The electronic management of contents, reference communities, and distribution channels offers valuable insights and solutions to these institutions. This article outlines the competitive responses that can be adopted by online museums, discusses the reengineering of their role in the tourism market, and proposes a prototype of a multimedia portal aimed at creating valuable synergies between cultural and tourist services.