The National Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (mNACTEC) generates direct and indirect economic activity in the city of Terrassa of between 3.2 and 3.7 million euros, value added of between 1.6 and 2 million euros, and between 34 and 50 new jobs in the area of influence of Terrassa. These are the figures derived from the Study into the Economic Impact of the mNACTEC produced by ESADE and the GRUGET Tourism Management Group, by analysing the mNACTEC in the initial phase, before extending the study to the whole Territorial Structure of the Museum, comprising 27 industrial museums all around the country.
The conclusions of the study establish that for every euro of public money invested in the running of the mNACTEC, it generates on average 1.5 euros of economic activity, 0.8 euros of gross value added and around 42 jobs.
The figures are towards the upper end of the scale for museums located in non-tourist regions, as in the case of the mNACTEC.
A new indicator to evaluate museums
In 2014 the mNACTEC embarked on a number of different initiatives with the aim of evaluating and quantifying the return and impact that a national museum in its category has on society, and also its immediate surroundings. With the of continuing its progress and innovation in terms of museum evaluation indicators, rather than basing the analysis solely on a quantification of the number of visitors to the Museum (clocking up a record figure of more than 104,000 in 2015), the mNACTEC embarked on a study to analyse the economic impact and effect for the city of Terrassa and its surroundings of being the site of the only major cultural facility belonging to the national category outside the city of Barcelona.
It therefore commissioned a renowned group of experts in the evaluation and economic impact of museums to perform the study, which will continue this year by extending its scope to the group of 27 museums and heritage sites making up the Territorial Structure of the mNACTEC, a unique and exemplary decentralised museum system covering the whole of Catalonia, generating a considerable and extensive social and economic impact and return.
The team of professionals who produced the study comprises: Dr Mar Vila, Professor of the Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting of the ESADE Business School; Dr Modest Fluvià, Professor of the Department of Economics of Girona University; Dr Josep M. Sayeras, Professor of the Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting of ESADE-URL, and Dr Gerard Costa, Professor of the Department of Marketing Management of ESADE.
6 April 2016
