Survey of visitors to Hamburg's cultural institutions underway

20 January 2023

Ministry of Culture surveying 15,000 visitors to boost Hamburg as a city of culture

The Ministry of Culture and Media has launched a year-long survey through late 2023 of Hamburg's cultural facilities to determine the actual visitor numbers, how people learn about cultural offers and the perception of the scene, a press release said Thursday (January 12, 2023). Around 15,000 people are being surveyed in co-operation with cultural institutions across Hamburg in a bid to boost the city of culture. The ministry has made EUR 160,000 available for the survey.

Mixed picture in wake of pandemic

"After the major restrictions caused by the pandemic, the picture is very mixed in terms of visitor numbers. While some cultural events are sold out, the attendance at others remains tentative," said Dr. Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media. The survey aims to determine the underlying reasons for fluctuating visitor numbers and to determine strategies for reaching audiences. "The results can be an important basis for developing of Hamburg as a city of culture in the coming years," he added. The ministry had launched the "Give a Gift of Culture" (Schenk doch Kultur) campaign in the run-up to Christmas 2022 with Hamburg Marketing GmbH after the pandemic dealt a severe blow to the sector and caused losses of some EUR 15.3 billion in 2020 alone.

Survey of state and private cultural institutions

Originally scheduled for 2020, the survey is being carried out by the Leipzig-based market research company, Conoscope, and is focusing initially on state-run institutions such as the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, the Elbphilharmonie and the Hamburg Kunsthalle. A representative set of data is being collected for each cultural institution. The standardised basic questionnaire can be completed in analog or digital form and the institutions themselves can also ask questions. Private cultural institutions will be surveyed in the near future.

More insight into audience structure

People who have not visited cultural institutions are also being surveyed to determine their reasons and how behaviour has changed over the past three years. The data should give the ministry more insight into the audience structure in Hamburg as a city of culture. The first interim results should be available in mid 2023.

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