Abstract

The extensive literature on maritime museums mainly focuses on memory and heritage conservation aspects, while it lacks a focus on general economic issues, such as demand and supply, and management and organizational aspects. Hence, this article provides a preliminary overview of the situation of maritime museums in Europe, based on the development of a database of institutions belonging to this category. More specifically, we considered the geographical distribution of museums throughout Europe and some significant parameters linked to demand and supply, such as visitors’ numbers and the characteristics of the sites in which they are based (if arsenals and the presence of a floating area). The interest in these aspects is not merely academic: in addition to the original contribution to the literature on the field, this analysis aims to evaluate the potential of the realization of a maritime museum in the Venice Arsenal, in consideration of the potential demand, competitiveness and attractiveness, thanks to the comparison with the characteristics and performances of similar institutions already operating at a national and international level