Although there are an increasing number of virtual museums these days, most of the museums we work in remain bricks-and-mortar buildings. There are, of course, lots of advantages to this: for many heritage sites, the bricksand- mortar and what once happened within them is the whole point of the visitor experience! But a physical building brings with it physical limitations. Many heritage sites were never designed, in form nor fabric, to welcome large numbers of visitors per year. Even in the largest, newest sites there is a finite capacity to the volume of people we can host.

These limitations have led to the development of an entire science devoted to how we can best manage capacity in our museums. The world of ticketing systems, pre-booking technology, and crowd management can often feel like a slightly intimidating body of water; deep, unfathomable and often murky. But it's well worth diving into, because applying just a few visitor management techniques could streamline the overall experience and make on-site processes much easier for your teams. In this chapter, we’ll take a look at some of these techniques and how they can make for a smoother, richer and above all safer visitor experience.

Capacity management

The first step to capacity management is knowing what the capacity is. There are a few different factors that might influence this. The first and more important will be the fire capacity. This is the number that the Fire Risk Assessment for your building says you are legally permitted to have in the building at any one time. It should take into account things like the activity undertaken by visitors (will people be standing or sitting, dancing or walking, eating or drinking alcohol?) and the number of fire exits, stairs, internal corridors, etc. Your Fire Risk Assessment is a critical document, so if the museum doesn't have the in-house resource such as a Fire Officer to carry it out, it's important to seek outside assistance from a consultant.