Tourism students take part in “Visitor Experience"

Director of Visitor Experience is a new professional figure, hugely important in the world of museums and cultural sights abroad, that guarantees a unique visiting experience, so rich and stimulating that visitors will want to return again and again.
Students of Ca' Foscari's Master’s Degree in Intercultural Development of Tourism Systems at Ca’ Foscari became Directors of Visitor Experience for a day, ‘guided’ by Suzanna Miles, during their English language course: they went to museums in Venice and in the mainland, analysing all the aspects of their visit, from welcome to accessibility, from quality of information to interactivity, as well as conducting interviews with staff and visitors.

Among the museums ‘visited’ by around fifty Ca Foscari students are some of the prestigious institutes of the Musei Civici Foundation (Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art, Mocenigo Palace Museum, Natural History Museum, Glass Museum).

On finishing their research, students presented their experience visiting the inside of these museum centers, in small groups and in a dynamic presentation as their examination. For example, the technique of Pecha Kucha, consisting in a presentation of 20 images (without written words), each of which lasted 20 seconds, was used.

Chiara Colussi, one of the students involved, explains; “In addition to the added value that these ‘practical’ experiences give to normal didactic activities, in our campus they acquire a greater relevance because we must not forget that we are directed to the service (for tourists, for visitors), thus we must understand their necessity and the situations from their point of view, putting us in their shoes, becoming paramount to find solutions (e.g. at management level) that otherwise would risk being  imported and disconnected in the academic world from their real needs.”