How COVID-19 impacted cultural consumption: an explorative analysis of Gen Z’s digital museum experiences

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, arts and culture have experienced a paradoxical situation. The sector has been one of the most negatively affected due to both mobility restrictions and social distancing; yet for the same reasons, demand for online cultural experiences has intensified, and digital access has become more critical than ever. While extant research has focused mainly on the offering side of such changes and developments, this paper investigates how the pandemic impacted on cultural consumption online, and particularly for museum products. The research takes on a demand perspective, an often neglected one when analyzing digitalization and innovation in museums’ offering. Through a direct survey approach, the paper addresses a gap in research on younger subjects, the Generation Z, typically a non-demand segment. It specifically investigates their reactions to digital museum experiences, a realm that research based on museum data has pointed out as a probable route to their involvement. The research is based on two surveys on cultural consumption of a sample of Italian university students of over 1000 respondents, before and during lockdown. Results show that during COVID-19 not only has online cultural consumption increased, but so has the quality of the associated experience, where online museum visits are concerned. Results indicate that learning processes occurred during the pandemic, suggesting potential changes in cultural consumption mediated by digital technologies, with implications for multi-channel strategies of museums in the post-pandemic scenario.