Living the story: a dual approach to exploring perceived authenticity and visitor motivation in heritage museums.

Abstract

Museums offer rich cultural and heritage experiences, yet little research exists on why visitors are drawn to author-inspired museums – an emergent museum type in Norway. Grounded in the literature domains of cultural heritage and museum tourism, this study explores the co-utility of perceived authenticity and visitor motivation in explaining visitor behavior. It focuses on two prominent Norwegian author-inspired museums – the Ibsen Museum and Hamsun Centre – and exit surveyed 410 individuals aged 18 or older who had physically visited either museum. This study is timely and original for several reasons: (i) it addresses the challenge of attracting visitors, (ii) it emphasizes the importance of object-based and existential dimensions in measuring perceived authenticity, (iii) it reveals the role of both reflective and recreational motives in shaping perceptions of authenticity, and (iv) it introduces a combined statistical approach using structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural networks (ANN) to enhance understanding of visitor behavior. Findings suggest that author-inspired museums should prioritize existential authenticity while catering to visitors’ recreational motivations in their engagement strategies.