MUSEUMS, MARKETING, TOURISM AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT. THE BRITISH MUSEUM – A SUCCESSFUL MODEL FOR ROMANIAN MUSEUMS

The continuous growth of cultural influence upon the modern societycombined with the increasing role of tourism in the economic life of cities, ledto the development of the “emblem museums”. The “emblem museum”usually becomes a touristic attraction objective that must be visited bytourists from a city, and by taking the decision of prolonging their staying inthat city, the tourists will increase the amount of money they spend in thatlocation. The “emblem museums” represent a way to develop urban tourism,gain competitive advantage and attract new sources of income for the city`seconomy. A recent study showed that 3 out of 10 tourists visited London forits museums. One of them is the British Museum, which, in 2010 was on the2nd place in the top10 world`s most visited museums. This study aims topresent the British Museum from the mix marketing perspective, from thevisitor’s point of view, and to present some of the good practices this giant isusing to attract more visitors and to maintain its competitive advantage,practices which may be used by Romanian museums in order to increase thevisitors number and to obtain a better position in the economy life ofRomanian cities.