Museum exhibitions fuel Shanghai's urban tourism

Exhibitions have become a new engine powering the city's development as a preferred destination for urban tourism, and museum visitors show a tendency toward younger generations, a report revealed on Thursday.

By the end of last year, the city had registered 165 museums or 151,000 people per museum, far exceeding the nation's average.

At the same time, there is one museum every 38.4 square kilometers of land in the city, topping the Yangtze River Delta region.

Audiences aged between 18 and 35 had accounted for 54.08 percent of the total, reflecting the younger tendency of museum visits in Shanghai, according to the Evaluation Report on the Local Contribution of Museums in Shanghai (2023), released by Fudan University and the Donghao Lansheng Group under the guidance of the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.

In Shanghai, nearly 82 percent of museums have opened free to the public, which enables people to explore the city in an easy and cost-effective way. Appealing exhibits, a rich cultural atmosphere, unique and diversified exhibitions, interactive activities, a wide range of options for cultural and creative products, and little impact from weather conditions were all cited by the young generation as reasons for their preference for museum tours, according to the report.

It reflects the curiosity and sense of recognition of the young generation on traditional Chinese culture, the report reveals.

Shanghai's university students showed a much stronger enthusiasm on museum tours than the nation's average level, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the number of out-of-town visitors to museums in Shanghai was almost equal to that of locals, with the latter only 1 percentage point higher, which demonstrates the appeal of Shanghai's museums for tourists, according to the report.

Among the heavyweight exhibitions held last year, "Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London" at Shanghai Museum attracted more than 420,000 visits, hitting a record for exhibitions held at domestic museums that charge admission, with about half of visitors from other parts of China.

The report that was released for the first time is based on nearly 50 indices such as the number of exhibitions, per capita consumption, and IP authorization revenue.