Strategies of museum pricing in the international context. The Italian case

This work aims to study the possible strategies of museum pricing, with an international perspective and a specific analysis of the Italian situation. The specific interest in the Italian situations is justified by the recent approval of a national law and a subsequent debate, which introduced important aspects of innovation in the pricing system of state museums. The topic of museum pricing has been always considered one of the most important aspects in the strategies of arts and cultural organizations and especially of museums, due to its capacity of influencing the economic performance, but also the number of visitors. The academic debate about the strategies of museum pricing has already seen important contributions, but this topic might be subjected to further investigations. The multiplicity of objectives, which involves the museum mission, may be represented by the occurrence of different pricing strategies, in function of the different order of priority that is given to these objectives, like creation of educational value, pursuing financial revenue, attracting donors, and gaining international or local prestige. Another point of the international debate regards the role and the opportunities of (partial or complete) free admission systems. This aspect involves also the debate among museum professionals, which are still divided between those who would prefer the largest possible system of free entrance and those who support the need for a paid ticket, also as an expression of recognition of the value of works of art and cultural heritage. From a methodological point of view, the paper aims to present some empirical evidence on an international level, in order to highlight some aspects of complexity, arising from the actual reality of implementation of pricing strategies in museums. The result of this empirical analysis is that there is a great variety of pricing and access modes, many of which are completely disconnected from managerial logics and the application of management accounting systems. This part of the empirical analysis, which will take into consideration several cases at the international level, will be enriched by the analysis of the results of the recent Italian reforms on the pricing system of state museums. About the possibility of free entry for the museums, the first results show that where a system of free admittance was introduced, this was possible on the basis of socio-economic assessments, and in that case it was supported by strong policies aiming at reinforcing private donations, economic and socio-cultural sustainability, and the relationship between large and small museums on the same local area, especially when cumulative ticket systems are designed and promoted.