The museum of old and new art: Leveraging entrepreneurial marketing to create a unique arts and vacation venture

Abstract

Entrepreneurial marketing is used to understand new venture creation in the vacation tourism sector through a case study of private art museum in Tasmania that has become a tourist destination of major international significance. The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) has emerged as a major driver of tourism in the region. Interrogation of the arts and cultural tourism literature sets up a key research proposition – in arts and cultural tourism, the unique artistic tastes of the entrepreneur often trump customer needs and preferences by shaping the visitor’s experience through creative artistic innovation. The findings support our proposition, with additional grounding through the impact of the owner/manager and associated entrepreneurial marketing and effectuation impacts.