Findings from The Audience Agency's Digital Audience Survey show how museum visitors have responded to organisations moving so much of their offering online since the COVID-19 lock-down period.

This 5 minute survey, deployed by museums via their websites, social media and other e-communications, invites online audiences to help organisations to better understand visitors':

  • Profiles
  • Motivations
  • Online habits
  • Changes through COVID-19

See the Museums' Digital Visitors Report as a PDF


Headline findings at a glance

Museum digital visitors are...

  • Very regular. 57% visit at least once a week, compared with 29% for other artforms.
  • Previously frequent in-person attenders. 43% have visited the venue in person in the past 12 months. These visitors are also the most likely to engage online.
  • Largely intellectually motivated. 67 % of visitors are motivated by the desire to learn, while 52% wish to be intellectually stimulated.
  • Also motivated by entertainment. 45% of museum online visitors cite this as a motivation, vs 38% for other artforms.
  • Less likely to be professionally motivated (13%) to visit than is true of visitors to other artforms (22%).
  • More likely than visitors to other online artforms to identify as: White (95% vs 91%); Over 55 (54% vs 47%); Male (33% vs 28%); Disabled (18% vs 13%).