CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN MUSEUM MARKETING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN MUSEUM MARKETING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Challenges and Opportunities in Museum Marketing and Cultural Heritage in the Islamic World

Introduction

Over the years, the field of international culture and heritage marketing has expanded amid changes such as globalization and an increased interest in the interplay amongst culture, marketing, politics, and religion. What is more, is that in today’s world, museums have become cultural staples, acting as memorials, and spaces to record, interpret and understand cultural and social change. Today’s museums are also evolving to provide opportunities for nations and societies to expand and sell their heritage to new audiences. These moves effectively strengthen their roles as avenues for cultural tourism and heritage commodification. In particular, in the context of Muslim societies, it has become increasingly important for scholars, academicians and practitioners to preserve and safeguard Islamic cultural heritage. While Islamic cultural heritage was previously viewed as perpetuating and promoting lazy stereotypes of the East, Islamic theatre, artwork, music and jewellery now play a vital role in selling, exporting and expounding the legacy of the Muslim world. This essay explores the changing dynamics of cultural heritage in the Muslim world. To this end, it explores the challenges that the Islamic world faces in museum marketing and cultural heritage, and explores the possible opportunities that could be embraced to benefit from this growing and evolving space.

What is Cultural Heritage?

The concept and meaning of cultural heritage has evolved over the years. Vecco (2010), observes that the term, in the last few decades, has been characterized by change and “scientific transfer” resulting in varied uses of the word. Our sense, loyalty, identities and beliefs continuously change, and according to Vecco (2010), this continuous state of flux contributes to the changing of the nature and meaning of cultural heritage. Turnpenny (2004) also agrees to these sentiments, acknowledging that there exist different types of heritage. Heritage, in the conceptions of Turnpenny, (2004), may include tangible objects (land, monuments, sites, among others), and intangible objects such as knowledge, beliefs and traditions. Thus, heritage may be built, constructed, taught, written or read. It follows that heritage is everywhere, and it can be humanmade or natural. To construe an adequate definition of cultural heritage, this essay adopts the definition by González-Pérez and Parcero-Oubiña (2011) to define cultural heritage as the “legacy” of both tangible and intangible objects and qualities, that are passed down from the past. The authors also add that these legacies must be “deliberately” passed down through generations, as societies selectively decide what to attribute as heritage.

Museum Marketing

Many museum authorities are becoming increasingly open to relating their institutions to terms from the business world such as marketing, commercialization, and promotions. However, this has not always been the case. Zbuchea (2008) writes that in the past, there was fear that such terms could limit audiences, visitors and tourists by depicting these institutions as commercial enterprises interested in the profit side of things. Nonetheless, there has been a gradual yet steady change in the roles played by museums. Today museums are no longer only a keeper of heritage, but also educator, advisors and exporter of it (Zbuchea 2008). In this regard, museums also seek to create, communicate, deliver and exchange value for their consumers and clients. Museums should now know its customer preferences and experiences through studying its visitors and building and changing the perceptions of their audiences (Zbuchea 2005). Besides preserving natural heritage, museums now need to make sure that visitors and partners gain customized value from their visits. Exploring the changing role of museums, Rentschler and Hede (2009) opine that in the recent decades, opinion about museums has changed, and marketing has become more commonplace and more “sophisticated” in its use.  Nonetheless, Rentschler and Hede (2009) lament that the venture “remains uneven, and considerable confusion and misunderstanding still surround its purpose and potential.”  As such, the need for more studies concerning museum marketing cannot be overemphasized.

Museums and Cultural Heritage in the Islamic World

The last half-century have seen enormous changes to the cultural scene in the Muslim world. Since their independence, Arab states, in particular, have taken increasing control of their traditions and heritage. The change in economic fortunes amongst the Gulf States, for instance, has meant that the spectacular tourist destinations have opened up to the world. Museum activity, regeneration and creation, in turn, have been on the rise. Countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, besides their ever-growing robust economies, currently boast some of the most advanced tourism destinations in the world.

Arab states now participate in international cultural events where they gain the opportunity to showcase their world-class talent in the arts, theatre, music, amongst other aspects of their heritage. Alraouf (2008) explains that Arab states now participate regularly in world cultural events, citing the time that Egypt and Bahrain won the golden lion prizes in unique cultural showings. Now, the Muslim world faces the dual roles of servicing its local communities and selling the unique Islamic culture to the world. In an analysis of Islamic collections, Adahl (2013) exalted the “unparalleled” variety and beauty that the Islamic world now brings to the table. In this regard, Adahl (2013) opines that there are four major types of museums that contain the heritage of Islamic societies: first is the Western creations that entail universal acquisitions and objects; second is the specialized museums which, despite being found in the West, contain dedicated acquisitions such as Asian or Oriental museums; third, the national museum, which is mainly found within Islamic nations’ borders, reflecting their histories, and fourth; exhibition libraries, special guardians of the most treasured paintings, artefacts or manuscripts. Each category has its own experiences, expectations and rewards, and thus museum managers have to go the extra mile to satisfy customers. The following are some of the challenges and opportunities that are experienced in museum marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world.

Challenges in Museum Marketing and Cultural Heritage in the Islamic World

In 2002, the World Heritage committee set out to tackle four challenges to achieve its goals: the issue of adequate representation of all cultures; second, encouraging effective conservation; third, raising the level of expertise in the field; and fourth, increasing social and public advocacy about the issues of culture and heritage (Bandarin 2007). While the World Heritage Convention has achieved a lot over the course of the last few decades following this declaration, there remains a myriad of challenges that are yet to be surmounted. The same can be said for the Muslim world: despite all the speedy achievements in the sectors of development, culture and urbanization, there remain significant challenges to the cultural sector. The Arab world has achieved a great deal in increasing audiences and visitors, but the following issues still plague the museum marketing sector of the Islamic world.

First, museum marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world suffers from significant social stereotypes. There are various stereotypes that surround the Muslim religious groups. One, a considerable amount of people consider the Muslim community and region as a warzone and a breeding ground for terrorists. With the rise of Islamophobia, it becomes difficult for museum marketers to sell their products. For example, in an eye opening article, Sayej (2017) explored how an Islamic and Arab art institute looked to challenge stereotypes in New York. The author observes that the city, at the time, had Asian and Jewish museum, but museums with an Islamic theme missed conspicuously. To this end, a nonprofit institute sought to build a Muslim “cultural center” which would feature art galleries aimed to educate people against the stereotypes. Many people are yet to engage the Islamic world beyond the religious context. Also, another stereotype about the Muslim world is about them being distant and aloof. Rahim (2018) explains how a British Museum had placed Islamic art far from the center of the building. However, to change this stereotype, the museum changed the location of the objects, which include souvenirs from the Salcombe Bay to the center of the museum. Therefore, such stereotypes build a significant barrier when it comes to exporting the Islamic culture to the world.

Another stereotype includes what is considered as “Muslim” object. On the surface, the concept of Muslim object is perceived as something that concerns the Islamic faith. Rahim (2018) explains that a British museum openly displays items such as a marble panel with Quran writings that depict the Muslim faith. However, the museum stretches the idea of Muslim to integrate much more than faith. It depicts items that were made where a Muslim dynasty was situated to count as Islamic items.

Moreover, another challenge faced by museum marketers in the Islamic World is intense competition from well-established entities. Western countries such as Europe and those in North America have had the resources and capability to exert their influence on other nations across the global scale. These patterns have trickled down to various industries including art and museum, whereby, Western products are generally well-recognized across the world.  However, not all Western artistic products and objects are usually aligned to the sharia law and other pillars of the Islamic faith. Also, over the past ears, there has been a considerable growth in the middle class population of Islamic countries and thus, there had been an increased need for representation of objects or products that depict the history and indigenous Muslim population. Moreover, from a national perspective, predominantly Islamic nation have an increased desire to globalize their history and culture through museums and art due to the known economic benefits of having high global recognition. As a result, Museum marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world has increased to rival that from Western countries. It becomes a challenge for the Islamic world to differentiate their museum content from that of the Western world to ensure that they attract a high number of visitors from across the world.

Another challenge in the Islamic world is the restrictions created by differences in cultural beliefs. Residents of the Islamic world largely define their practices by the beliefs of the Islamic faith. A considerable amount of homogeneity exists between Muslim nations. For instance, all Muslims practice fasting during Ramadan, have daily prayers and male circumcision. However, diversity still exists within the rituals and practices of Muslim nations due to issues such as differences in interpretation of the holy books, globalization and immigration. For instance, while Muslim women in Indonesia normalize male family leadership and permit wife beating in cases of disobedience, those in Norway strongly condemn any forms of domestic violence and advocate for gender equality (Eidhamar 2018). This exemplifies sharp differences that may exist even within communities that are both Muslim. The extent of the cultural challenge heightens in non-Muslim regions that may have completely different norms from those of Muslim nations. It becomes difficult for museums to take account of all these differences in cultural beliefs in  how they depict and design exhibitions. As the world becomes more diverse, it becomes a challenge to create and market museums that are culturally inclusive while taking into the account the diversity of the demographics of visitors that may experience them.

Another challenge that faces museum marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world is political contests. Some of the political challenges experienced in the Islamic world include personal and political rights, corruption, freedoms, political terror, and religious tolerance which negatively affect the political stability of the region (el-Aswad 2016). The operations and profitability of art museums is maximized when political risks and instabilities within a region are low since the environment encourages visitations from both domestic and international guests. Internationally, Islam as a religion has increasingly generated a political profile evident from Islamic movements that impact global peace and security (Simbar 2009). Due to such political reasons, the perception of the heritage and culture of Islamic nations has negatively been affected. In most cases, the culture is misrepresented as that which is violent

Political instability reduces the desirability of the Islamic world, especially for visitors whose well-being within the countries is affected by political stability. For instance, people would not risk visiting a country that is likely to break into war driven by political agendas.  The politicization of Islam has also built tension between countries and thus, affects consumer perceptions of the Islamic world.  While marketing, museums have to take into account the likelihood of these political misunderstandings, both locally and internationally, to ensure that they create a visitor-friendly environment within their art exhibitions and displays.

Yet another challenge that Islamic countries face are economic in nature. These economic challenges are experienced from the perspective of the museum organizations themselves, as well as visitors. Most times, museums run as non-profitable organizations intended to educate and inform. Therefore, they have to invent sustainable revenue streams that would allow them to continue to expand and fulfil the new purposes they are growing to serve; such as changing societal stereotypes. National governments may offer a significant amount of funding for the museums, however, priority remains with the core public services, such as education and health. One way of generating revenues has been through introducing a fee that can be paid by visitors upon entry into the museums. However, poverty continues to be one of the world’s biggest problems, especially in the third world nations that include the Muslim nations (Chtatou 2020).  This limits the capability of the domestic visitors to pay entry fees at the institutions, thus reducing frequency of guests in art museums.

Opportunities in Museum Marketing and Cultural Heritage in the Islamic World

            One of the existing opportunities in museum marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world is the modern information systems and resources available for enhancing the understanding of cultural heritage. Today, information technology has taken over almost every aspect of life, from home to work environments. The art and museum industry has also realized the value of technology and has invested in Information Technology systems and resources that serve diverse purposes. One example is the virtual museums that can be defined as digital systems that are a collection of objects and relevant data that facilitate discovery and research in digital spaces (Povroznik 2018). Virtual museums rely on a variety of resources and thus, have the opportunity to integrate diverse content that can be used to inform and enhance understanding of both Muslim and non-Muslim cultures. This diversity of content can also be used as a tool for debunking common stereotypes about what is considered Muslim and non-Muslim as was identified as a challenge to Muslim museum marketing and cultural heritage. Nonetheless, as with any other types of IT systems, virtual museums present a number of challenges for the owners and users. These include issues such as security and privacy or failure of systems. Some problems specific to virtual museums include quality of digital copies , organizing sources, absence or variations of object description formats, credibility and the authenticity of sources (Povroznik 2018). However, with optimization on the innovative capabilities of information technologies, organizations can leverage on the speed, accuracy and scalability of information technology to enhance museum marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world.

Another opportunity lies in the increased availability on international funding for museums. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to contribute to the sustainable developmental goals through education and culture. In view of this mission, the organization provides international funding through various organizations, such as the World Heritage Fund, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund and the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture, among others (UNESCO n.d; Basu and Modest 2014 ). Through these funding strategies, museums are able to market themselves more effectively and expand to allow more understanding of cultural heritage in the Muslim world.

Another opportunity for museum marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world is globalization.  Globalization has turned the world into a village that has presented numerous opportunities for the museum industry. Through globalization, barriers for communication have reduced which have increased interconnectedness and sharing of information across the globe (Pieterse 2005).  An influx of information increases knowledge about various social groups which reduces stereotypes about particular groups. Also, globalization has increased trade between nations, thus improving the economic health of nations, including Muslim nations. Through enhanced economic standing, nations are able to invest more in entities such as museums that help in enhancing their cultural heritage and understanding. Another benefit resultant from globalization is increased social integration which has allowed people from Western countries and other regions to interact with those from the Islamic world, thus increasing the desire to learn more about their cultural heritage. This drives the number of visitors who set out to visit museums in the Muslim world. Lastly, globalization presents numerous chances for technological advancements which are crucial for museums, such as security mechanisms (Rectanus 2006; Li & Chen 2014).  With such opportunities resultant from globalization, museum marketing and cultural heritage is bound to grow.

Summary Conclusion and recommendations

Like the case for other countries, the Islamic nations have realized the value of museum marketing and cultural heritage. Initially, the nations perceived art museums for their traditional role which entailed storing objects and materials that hold significant cultural and historical value. However, increasingly, the role of museums is evolving to include more complex roles such as debunking societal stereotypes. To fully attain these new objectives, the Islamic museum industry experiences many challenges that hinder them. For instance, there exist social stereotypes, differences in cultural beliefs, political contests and financial constraints that hinder successful construction of museums, marketing and subsequent maintenance of cultural heritage in the Islamic world. In the same vein, several opportunities also exist in the museum industry that can be leveraged to enhance museums marketing and cultural heritage in the Islamic world. These include the advent of information technology resources and tools such as virtual museums, globalization that has enhanced social integration, communication and trade ties and the international funding opportunities through UNESCO to improve qualities of museums in the Islamic nations. In future, the governments of Islamic nations should work in collaboration with the public and other non-state actors to optimize on these opportunities, to ensure that the museum industry remains thriving and that the cultural heritage of the Islamic world is maintained.

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