Galleries add real value to tourism
Cultural tourism — which includes visits to art galleries — is one of the fastest growing and most valuable sectors of the multibillion-dollar global travel and tourism industry.
It accounted for an estimated 9.8 per cent of global GDP in 2016 and 14 million jobs, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s 2017 Economic Impact study.
At AUT’s New Zealand Tourism Research Institute, Simon Milne, associate head of school, research and development, says globally communities are seeking points of difference to attract tourist dollars, with the cultural dimension — the arts — representing an important element in that approach. He believes if a community can develop something that sets it apart or allows it to become part of a network of galleries or attractions, it can add real value.
“Galleries and museums are fantastic in helping to create a sense of place; they have people in them who reflect and think about what the environment means to them through art… in all those settings you’ve got the chance to talk about contested histories, to talk about Ma¯ori culture.
“What you promote to a tourist often reflects you own value and your own focus. It’s about us, as a society, becoming more aware of what we can offer in terms of arts and culture. I think that’s definitely happening — there’s been a real trend around Auckland in the growth of things like sculpture trails — but I think we can do more.”
Obviously, the money has to be invested before you get that return and that makes some people, especially ratepayers, nervous.
Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum is the exemplar par excellence of what happens when things go right. It was built, for US$89 million (NZ$132m), as part of a regional revitalisation project in a run-down port area of the northern Spanish city.
Opened in 1997, within its first three years four million tourists had visited and, by generating around €500m (NZ$842m) through hotel stays, restaurant meals, shopping, transport and taxes, paid for the building, an acquisitions fund and other start-up costs several times over.
It’s known as “the Bilbao Effect” but the Guggenheim Museum is a different undertaking to Whanganui’s revamped Sarjeant Gallery given the location and population differences and the size of the institutions themselves.
Milne points to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, northwest of Toronto, as a more comparable example. It was founded in the 1960s by Robert and Signe McMichael, collectors of paintings by famed Canadian landscape painters, First Nations and Inuit artists.
“That is a nationally respected gallery with an amazing art collection and that has been a major source of economic revenue and visitation for that area, just north of Toronto,” he says.
Then there’s the Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth.
A Business and Economic Research Limited (BERL) report concluded in 2016 that the LLC attracted 34,400 visitors — 17,000 from outside the region — who helped inject $7.4m into the local economy and generate the equivalent of 103 full-time jobs.
Still, the award-winning gallery has experienced cash woes — it was forced to introduce a $15 charge for non-resident visitors — and remains contentious. New Plymouth district councillor and LLC opponent John “Horse” McLeod said he didn’t think the centre was attracting visitors.
Maybe, says Milne, but why not have additional attractions that complement the natural environment?
“People will also be looking at physical attractions: walking tracks, rail trails, lakes, beaches and other things that attract visitors but this is a different dimension and it may keep visitors in town if they decide to add on an extra day or two to see the gallery.”
And, he adds, gallery visits aren’t dependent on fine weather.