From Cultural Consumer at Home to Heritage Tourist Away

The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between visitation patterns of museums at home when compared to museums visited on holidays taken. The data were collected from a sample of residents of Alta, a fjord town in northern Norway. A multiple discriminant analysis was first conducted to ascertain the factors that increased the probability of visiting a museum at home. The variables that correlated significantly with the discriminant function were collectively named 'cultural consumption'. Subsequently, a bivariate correlation analysis was performed in order to examine the relationship between the significant discriminant function and the frequency of visits of the same sample to museums on their holidays. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.