Living the story: a dual approach to exploring perceived authenticity and visitor motivation in heritage museums

Museums offer rich cultural and heritage experiences, yet little research exists on why visitors are drawn to author-inspired museums—an emergent museum type in Norway. Grounded in the literature domains of cultural heritage and museum tourism, this study explores the co-utility of perceived authenticity and visitor motivation in explaining visitor behavior. It focuses on two prominent Norwegian author-inspired museums—the Ibsen Museum and Hamsun Centre—and exit surveyed 410 individuals aged 18 or older who had physically visited either museum. This study is timely and original for several reasons: i) it addresses the challenge of attracting visitors, ii) it emphasizes the importance of object-based and existential dimensions in measuring perceived authenticity, iii) it reveals the role of both reflective and recreational motives in shaping perceptions of authenticity, and iv) it introduces a combined statistical approach using structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural networks (ANN) to enhance understanding of visitor behavior. Findings suggest that author-inspired museums should prioritize existential authenticity while catering to visitors' recreational motivations in their engagement strategies.