Managed Access to Cultural Tourism Attractions and the Distribution of Visitor Waiting Time

Abstract

Managed access can enhance in-venue conditions and make visitors spend a significant amount of time outside the venue at a cultural attraction. This paper is interested in that trade-off, not as a technology-performance issue, but rather a tourism policy issue. The 1,856 visit segments and 6,773 exhibit engagements recorded at the MUSE, Trento, in 2022 are published here. An empirically based event simulation examines the difference between unrestricted access, paced admission, a limit on the number of people allowed in the gallery, limits on exhibits and a combination of the two and the original access under the same demand. Two hundred replications are used for each demand condition to measure queue location, completion and illustrative itinerary time budgets. Combined control is optimal in terms of gallery attendance, eighteen active visits at 180 entries/hr, but with a mean waiting time for the tail of the distribution of 66.59 minutes, 63.84% of visits last more than 30 minutes from arrival to exit. Exhibit control results in 1.11 minutes of tail waiting without enforcing the gallery control. Later-period visit patterns result in a combined-control tail waiting time of 93.87 minutes. The results indicate the importance of considering access costs distribution along with loading reductions for destination and attraction authorities. The proposed policy solution ties up capacity to clear booking data, facilitates access, and records visitor results. The effects of policies and capacities of safety are not observed, but rather simulated.