What it means
Amenities, such as restrooms, coat check, food offerings, and seating, are services or conveniences made available to visitors to meet their visitation, participation, or general usage needs and support a prolonged stay in the museum. Amenities can and should include online services as well.
How it’s used
Amenities are a critical component of meeting the specific needs of our current and future audiences and a key ingredient of a museum’s audience development efforts. Planning for expanded or improved amenities is a necessary element of an effective audience development plan.
For example, a museum that wants to attract and grow a family audience but that does not adjust its amenities to meet the needs of the family audience through family restrooms, stroller parking, food offerings, designated spaces, and related programs will not be able to attract and maintain those audiences and suffers the risk of harming the museum’s reputation as a consequence.
Amenities can also be substantially improved through internal team training and actively collecting and listening to visitor feedback.
Why it matters
Amenities play a critical role in support of the museum experience because they make people more comfortable and thus able to engage more deeply with the museum’s content. Some amenities enhance the museum experience and help prolong a museum stay; if unavailable, they may limit or even prohibit visitation for some people.