Museums, national resources, and the broader economic impacts of National Museum Wales

How do public museums balance their economic costs with their economic benefits? Political debate often strips nuance from museum management, with the total public spending going into a museum countered by a museum’s direct revenue generation. This paper attempts to complicate those false dichotomies by demonstrating that while free-to-enter public museums generate relatively little of their own direct revenue, their broader contribution to the regional economy must be considered. Across Britain, national museums play a central role in the tourist economy, and in Wales, St. Fagans National Museum of History has long been the nation’s most visited tourist destination. With this in mind, using self-provided data on spending inside museums and within broader museum communities, we attempt to highlight the community economic impacts of all seven National Museum Wales (NMW) museums. The findings support other museum studies which identify a regional multiplying effect that free entry museums have on regional economies, and that even museums which generate little direct revenue could be considered for their 'return on investment' in broader regional economic and cultural development.