The Groninger Museum

Today I visited the Groninger museum. It is located near the railway station, so you can easily get there by train. At this moment there is an exhibition about David Bowie, which is very special. Another special thing was that I could have a talk about tourism with the manager of the Groninger Museum!
He had a lot to tell about tourism. When you think about a museum, tourism is not the first thing that comes to mind. First, the manager told about the history of musea. He used the theory about the 'Grand Tour' (Edensor, 2009). In early modern times, rich people traveled through the classical world in Europe. The first small museums were erected. These museums were only open to people who were 'well dressed'. While on tour, rich people could visit a museum. Later, museums were more and more open for all people, however rich or poor you were. This was an important development in the history of museums.
These days visitors still travel to see an exhibition. For the manager of the Groninger museum, it is a challenge to keep attracting Dutch visitors. For many foreign visitors their visit is just once, because they will not revisit the Netherlands soon. So the manager wants the Dutch people to keep visiting his museum. Therefore, the museum has to be attractive for various groups. Students are a difficult group. How do you get the students interested in a museum?
I think it is important that a museum is not too expensive, since students don't have very much money. Maybe it is a good option to have an exhibition about travelling, since most students like to travel.

Interesting light in the museum

Another aspect of tourism can be found in maintaining the collection. The collections have to 'travel' to the museum. Some collections, for example, travel from Japan to the Netherlands to New Zealand. It is interesting how collections travel a lot too, not only the visitors.

This was a very interesting visit, I have learned a lot!

References

Edensor, T. (2009). Tourism. International Encyclopaedia of Geography, 301-312.  

The 'Martinitoren'

How the Martinitower looks

After the first day of arriving, eating typical Dutch pancakes and testing my hotel bed, it was time to visit some things in Groningen on the second day. I heard the 'Martinitoren' is something you cannot miss when you are in Groningen. When you are in the centre of Groningen, you can see the tower because of its height.

I bought a ticket and climbed the tower. First I thought: Maybe the tower is accessible for people with a disability. Then I saw the stairs and I thought: No. The 'Martinitoren' over 500 years old, people did not have tourists in mind back then. The stair has 251 steps, so you have to be fit in order to climb the tower. When you have reached the top of the stairs, you can see the view of the centre of Groningen from above. This is a wonderful sight.

But it is a pity this is not available for people with a disability. They also want to do the same things as other tourists. So they might want to watch Groningen from above.

I thought about dark tourism. Maybe the 'Martinitoren' is an example of a dark tourism attraction. Dark tourism means that you want to take a risk on your holiday (Buda, d'Hauteserre, Johnston, 2014). The risk could be going to a place which is very dangerous at the moment, like Syria now. But it can also be a dangerous activity, like bungee-jumping. Before I climbed the 'Martinitoren', I thought it might be a dark tourism attraction, because you climb to a certain height. When you have reached the top, you know it is a bit dangerous, because it is possible to fall down. So you're feeling excited and maybe a bit nervous. You want to take the risk. But when I had reached the top, I saw fences around the tower. Now it is not dangerous anymore. But people might still feel some excitement when they climb in the tower.

So the 'Martinitoren' is not accessible for people who cannot walk, or are not very fit. For the people who are able to climb the tower, it might be a bit like a dark tourism attraction, but not entirely. They may feel scared, but it is not dangerous, because of the fences.

So that was the 'Martinitoren'. I have done more things about which I will tell in my next blogpost.

Some views from the Martinitower

References:

Buda, D.M., d'Hauteserre, A., Johnston, L. (2014). Feelings and tourism studies. Annals of Tourism Research, 46, 102-114.  

Where to sleep?

When you are a tourist visiting Groningen, you have to find a place to sleep. You could go to a large chain hotel, like Hampshire. But most people are looking for something special. They are searching for authenticity.

The theory about searching for authenticity says that when more people have the opportunity to travel, the people with more money will search for special things. So when tourism just started, only the rich did have the opportunity to travel. When the working class also got the money to start travelling, the rich did not want to go to the same places as the working class: It was too crowded. They wanted to go to places that could be reached by plane, these destinations were further away. It was only accessible for the rich then, because traveling by plane was expensive (Edensor, 2009).

'Het Paleis' is a very nice, former laboraty

Nowadays, almost anybody can reach any destination. That's why people want to sleep at a special place, for example.

In the province of Groningen there are several options. I have chosen for a special one. During my holiday I'll sleep in a former laboratory. It is now a very nice hotel, called 'Het Paleis' (the palace).
Another option to stay during your visit to Groningen is the smallest hotel in the world. It is not located in the city of Groningen, but in a small village called Eenrum. The hotel only has one room. This hotel has a place in the Guinness book of Records!
A last option I have considered is a hotel on the canals. It is possible to sleep on a sailboat during your stay in Groningen. During winter you can sleep on 'de Mars', which is located in the centre of Groningen (city).

I'm sure there are a lot of other nice options to sleep, but I like these three options.

I will write soon about my adventures in Groningen!

References:

Edensor, T. (2009). Tourism. International Encyclopaedia of Geography, 301-312.