From Thresholds to Routines: A Data-Driven Framework for Attracting and Retaining Young Audiences in Italian Museums

The thesis investigates how Italian museums can innovate to attract and retain young audiences, moving from occasional visits to repeated and meaningful participation. The study is grounded in the 2025–2026 edition of Forum Giovani e Musei (Forum GEM), which provides the empirical context for analysing the relationship between under-30 audiences and museums. Starting from the literature on cultural participation and youth engagement, the research develops an exploratory quantitative analysis of Forum GEM survey data, collected from over 1,600 respondents. The empirical work combines data preparation, segmentation, cross-tabulations, and Power BI visualisation to transform survey evidence into management insights. The results suggest that the issue is not simply a lack of interest among young people, but the presence of thresholds that make museum-going difficult to activate and repeat. These thresholds concern affordability, clarity of the visit, perceived competence, social reinforcement, and the possibility of turning the museum into an ordinary cultural habit. The final output is the Threshold-to-Routine Framework. It proposes that museums should lower entry barriers, make visits more intelligible, activate peer and community-based reinforcement, and design recurring reasons to return. The thesis therefore offers an evidence-based contribution to support museums in becoming more accessible, understandable, socially relevant, and repeatable for young audiences.