Museum-goers or those who do not go have not been object of priority attention on the part of these institutions, usually occupied in adding, protecting and staging their collections. This article analyses the factors that have driven changes in that situation and that pose the museums new challenges. Amongst these, the need to attract new publics and to generate resources, but, also, that of re-conceptualising its function as an institution participant in contemporary society's economic and social development. The author shows the potential of attendance studies in the overcoming of the challenges posed, based on attendance statistical analyses and expounds attendance qualitative studies regarding architectural patrimony and museums in Mexico City.
Museum attendance; Communication in museums; Museums; Cultural Patrimony; Mexico
