MUSEUM CARD: AN ALL-ESTONIAN ANNUAL MUSEUM PASS
A working group has been operating at the Estonian Museum Association since autumn 2020 to launch the all-Estonian annual museum pass and the joint marketing platform for museums, the Museum Card. A similar card, Museokortti, has been a success in Finland.
WHAT IS THE MUSEUM CARD?
The museum card is a joint pass to visit Estonian museums and a joint museum marketing platform. For an annual fee, the cardholder can visit the museums that have joined the pass unlimited times.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE CARD FOR MUSEUMS?
The most important function of the museum card is to popularise and jointly market museums. The museum card can offer museums new opportunities to make themselves visible and address new target groups. The museum card is convenient and flexible for visitors, encouraging repeat visits.
The museum card will help:
- increase the numbers of visitors and incomes of the museums that have joined the pass,
- increase the visibility and raise the profile of museums through continuous joint marketing,
- increase the competitiveness of museums in the recreational services sector,
- increase the number of repeat visits to museums as well as new visitors,
- promote Estonian tourism in co-operation with the Finnish Museokortti,
- make informed decisions based on the statistics collected through the museum card.
- Based on the Finnish experience, a museum card also helps increase the sales of other services, such as visits to museum cafés and shops and guided tours.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS FOR MUSEUM VISITORS?
The card is convenient for visitors and encourages them to make more spontaneous visits to museums. They will be more likely to visit a museum half an hour before closing or see only one exhibition. The cardholder will not have to worry about purchasing tickets: they can visit the museum even every day with an annual pass.
The museum card website brings together the latest information on Estonian museums: an overview of the best exhibitions, events, audience programmes, etc., both in larger cities and smaller towns. Planning for culturally rich domestic tourism becomes even easier. In addition, the museum card makes a valuable gift to a friend interested in culture or history.
MUSEUM CARD FOUNDATION
The museum card is implemented by a Museum Card Foundation of the Estonian Museum Association. The working group includes Marge Rahu (marketing manager, Estonian Maritime Museum), Inge Laurik-Teder (board member of the Estonian Museum Association; acting research director, Museums of Virumaa), Ruth Laidvee (Tallink) and Hannele Valkeeniemi (Finnish Institute). The council’s work is advised by Lily Allas (Enterprise Estonia).
Kert Kask is the CEO of the Museum Card and the marketing manager is Liina Pulges.
PROGRESS
Launching the museum card requires thorough preparatory work. The experiences of other countries and Estonia’s readiness were mapped within the framework of Mia Kesamaa’s master’s thesis. In the summer of 2020, Kantar Emor made a of public interest in Estonia at the request of Enterprise Estonia.
A was developed during the Year of Digital Culture project. The analysis was prepared by the research and consulting company Cumulus Consulting in co-operation with the working group. The project team has been in close contact with representatives of the company managing the Finnish museum card to exchange experience for the card’s launch and develop co-operation towards linking the Estonian and Finnish museum cards. The aim is to look beyond Estonia and increase the number of museum tourists.
The project has been introduced to find support and start-up money at the Ministry of Culture and the National Heritage Board. After the business model was completed, it was tested on a small group of museum representatives to identify any significant concerns.
More information: info@muuseumikaart.ee
We are grateful to the Year of Digital Culture 2020 and Enterprise Estonia for their support.
