Nilmini Neththasinghe

Popularization of the new Site Museum of Sigiriya in par with the importance and the uniqueness of the World Heritage Site

The Sigiriya world heritage site is the most visited cultural heritage site in Sri Lanka. This cultural world heritage site is the largest revenue earning source for the Central Cultural Fund out of all other cultural world heritage sites in the country. Sigiriya world heritage site has a newly built museum and information center according to the international museological standards. However, this site museum is not popular among visitors compared to the Sigiriya heritage site. This issue was discovered mainly by reviewing and comparing last five years visitation information of Sigiriya site and museum. During this research study, reasons for low visitation for the Sigiriya museum were investigated.

This investigation was done qualitatively and quantitatively by analyzing internal and external factors that affect the museum popularity. The tools in the research study were questionnaires and interviews. The subjects of the study were museum and heritage site visitors, museum staff and administrators and the neighboring community. The study revealed that there is a relationship between visitor type and the awareness. Awareness is provided through publicity. The quality and quantity of the publicity is depending on the decisions and actions taken by the authorities and the management of the site museum. Therefore, the research findings emphasized that lack of publicity is an administration issue. This impediment is greatly affecting the popularity of the Sigiriya site museum. These findings are opening a new research avenue in the area of museum marketing.