Formative Task: British Museum SWOT Analysis and Future Expansion

This report presents a comprehensive SWOT analysis of the British Museum, a prominent tourist attraction in London. It begins with an introduction to the museum, highlighting its historical significance and key features, followed by a literature review justifying the use of SWOT as a relevant analytical tool for tourist attractions. The core of the report details the museum's strengths, such as its financial independence, brand recognition, and strong social media presence, while also addressing weaknesses like limited investment in research and development and high employee turnover. It identifies opportunities including e-commerce expansion and the growth of tourism in London. The report also acknowledges threats like technological advancements from competitors and political instability. Finally, the report evaluates the possibility for its expansion in the future, suggesting that the museum should focus on transport and its online presence to attract more visitors.

Formative Task Template
Name:
Title of Research Project; SWOT analysis of British Museum.
Reference list-
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Goranczewski, B. and Puciato, D., 2010 SWOT analysis in the formulation of tourism
development strategies for destinations. Tourism 20(2) pp.45-53
Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017 SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International
Social Research 10(51)
Home, M.W., 2016. April. Virtual reality at the British Museum: What is the value of
virtual reality environments for learning by children and young people,
schools, and families. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Museums
and the Web, Los Angeles, CA, USA (pp. 6-9).
Mahony, S. and et.al., 2017. Cultural institutions in the digital age: British Museum’s use of
Facebook Insights. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 11(1).
pp.286-303.
Maxim, C., 2016. Sustainable tourism implementation in urban areas: a case study of London.
Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 24(7). pp.971-989.
Oreski, D 2012 Strategy development by using SWOT-AHP. Tem Journal 1(4) pp.283-
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Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019 mportance-performance analysis
based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management
44 pp.194-203
Satya, et.al., 2018 SWOT ANALYSIS OF MARKETING TOURISM IN LEADING
TOURISM OBJECT OF BANDUNG AND SOPPENG. International
Journal of Organizational Innovation 11(2)
Watson, S., 2019. The British Museum and the Royal Academy: the nation state, English and
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What is your tourist attraction?
The tourist attraction chosen for this report is British museum, London
The British museum is a beautiful piece of art illustrating human history and culture. It
was set up in 1753 and was unlatched in 1759. It is located in Blumsbury district of central London
(Goranczewski and Puciato 2010). The museum contains more than 7 million objects in it
which portray and explains the story of human culture from its starting point to present. It’s most
popular and salient entity includes Rosetta stone and Elgin marbles. It has dedicated a small part
of it to ancient Egypt. The museum has collection of over 140 mummies and coffins of which few
are displayed due restriction in space and preservations. This museum is the largest in the world
in terms of area of space it has covered. It was the first public museum in the world.
The British museum is a non-departmental public body funded by Department for
Digital,Culture,Media and Sport and headed by the Director Of the British Museum. The museum
conducts many activities for family, and to inspire the people of all ages. It has many special
events to support especially abled children like the one with autism. The museum authorities
make sure that children feel comfortable and the atmosphere there feels energy within them
(Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills 2019). The other major antique things to see at museum
includes The Portland Vase, The Cat Mummies, Colossal Granite Head Of Amenhotep III, The
Sutton Hoo Ship Burial Helmet, The Lewis Chessmen, Hoa Hakananai'a- The Easter Island Statue,
The Elgin Marbles, Aztec Double-Headed Serpent, The Vindolanda Tablets,etc.
Why is SWOT a relevant and valid tool for analysing a Tourist attraction?
(Literature Review)
SWOT is the most illustrious tool for audit and analysis of overall planned position of the
business and its environment. SWOT analysis involves analysis in four sectors: Strength(internal,
positive
factors),weakness(internal,negativefactors),Opportunity(external,positivefactors),Threats(externa
l,negative factors).
This tools gleams at opportunities and threats. SWOT considers both internal and external
components which is likely to effect the success of the analysis done on a tourist location. The
identification of strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats produces a bulk of information
whose efficient use helps in taking the place forward.
Strength includes how well a place is performing as a tourist destination, what are the
various things it is good at, how string is the museum's research and development capabilities.
Weakness includes recognising areas which needs improvement to accomplish goals set by the
museum, where does museum lacks as an organization, are the resources confined within the

tourist place. Opportunities includes whether the tourist place gives positive impact, what are the
opportunities available in the market or environment one can grab on. Threats includes knowing
about things like the existing potential competitors, factors which are beyond the control of the
organization which could risk the businessmen product or technology been introduced in market
which could be harmful.
When the threats faced by museum are coupled with its weakness, SWOT analysis helps to
reduce risk faced, insulate itself and overcome it. SWOT helps the organization to know which
actions are to be considered and strengthen for improving its performance. SWOT analysis allows
the entities which are responsible for the management of tourism policies in destination to
position tourism in well organized and orderly way by following a strategic planning. SWOT
analysis maximizes its acknowledgment to opportunities and also swot is the most illustrious tool
for audit and analysis of overall planned position of the business and its environment. SWOT
analysis involves analysis in four sectors: Strength(internal, positive
factors),weakness(internal,negativefactors),Opportunity(external,positivefactors),Threats(externa
l,negative factors).
By providing information SWOT helps in harmonizing the place between the available
resources and its capabilities with the competitive environment in which the place is situated.
SWOT is a friendly tool for analysis which can be applied to any company in any industry. It can be
used for wide range of situations and SWOT is the most illustrious tool for audit and analysis of
overall planned position of the business and its environment. SWOT analysis involves analysis in
four sectors: Strength(internal, positive
factors),weakness(internal,negativefactors),Opportunity(external,positivefactors),Threats(externa
l,negative factors).
SWOT of tourist attraction
STRENGTHS:
Strengths are internal, controllable factors that that describe what an institution excels
at.
Financial Independence: British museum has been making profits for 5 consecutive years. These
profits are invested back into the museum to expand its operational, technological, and
infrastructural and advertisement capabilities.
Brand Name: British museum has been dedicated to recording and displaying human history, art
and culture since 1753, and showcases more than 8 million works, the largest in existence
(Home, 2016). Such a vast collection of artifacts attracts visitors from all over the globe and
highlights British Museum as one of the top tourist attractions in UK.
Social Media: British Museum boasts a large social media presence of more than a million
followers on 3 biggest social media platforms online, with high follower engagement and low
response time.
Website: British Museum also has its own dedicated, interactive website that attracts large traffic

and facilitates product sales.
Product Portfolio: The museum also offers its own, rather large, product portfolio with many
unique products, which the customers can browse through at their leisure.
Expanded IT Department: Museum has established its own IT department which ensures smooth
internal and external operations.
Dealer Relationship: British museum maintains productive relationships with supply dealers who
also focus on advertising museum products.
Production Automation: Various production stages have been automated for resource efficiency,
cost reduction and quality consistency.
Intellectual Property Rights: The museum owns various intellectual property rights, which
include trademarks and patents, which make their products exclusive and unique, deterring
competitors to imitate them.
WEAKNESSES:
Weaknesses are internal, controllable factors which describe what the institution is currently
failing at.
Research and Development: Museum's investment in R&D is lacking, when compared to its
competitors in the industry, who have garnered significant advantages because of their
innovative products.
Day Sales of Inventory: Unnecessary costs to museum add up due to high build up in inventory,
as time taken to purchase and sell products is higher than industry average.
Property Rents: A significant portion of British museum owned property is rented, not purchased
so considerable amount of rent is paid quarterly, adding up costs to business.
Financial Planning: Lack of proper financial planning at the museum regarding flow of cash has
led to circumstances resulting in unplanned borrowing of funds.
Integration: Failure of multiple attempts at vertical integration of the British museum has been
cited to the museum's current culture and structure.
Lack of diversity in workforce: The workforce comprises of mostly local workers with few coming
from other racial backgrounds. This lack of diversity hinders the ability of workers from other
racial backgrounds to adjust at the museum, resulting in loss of talent.
Old Market Research: British Museum has failed to conduct necessary market research for the
market it operates in for 2 years (Maxim, 2016). Decisions taken today are based on 2 year old
market analysis and new changes in market trends are ignored entirely.
Employee Turnover: The museum suffers from high employee turnover rate. The museum spends
big on training and development of its workforce, only to have them leaves and train newer
recruits again.
OPPORTUNITIES:

Opportunities are external, uncontrollable factors that can contribute towards your success.
Internet: With the number of internet users increasing continuously over the globe, the museum
should try and expand its presence online, to interact seamlessly with even more potential
customers.
E-Commerce: E-commerce industry has seen major growth in past couple of years. The museum
can capitalise on this changing trend and open online stores to service an entire uncharted
market and generate greater profits.
Technological: Technological trends are always changing as new technology is developed to
improve on product production, delivery process operations. Integration of these technological
trends can improve efficiency and quality of the production process and lower costs of the
business organisation.
Growth of Tourism: London is the biggest tourist destination in the UK and hosts around 30
million tourists annually (Mahony and et.al., 2017). This keeps providing the museum with fresh
potential customers to increase its market share.
Social Media: Though the British Museum boasts a large social media presence of over a million
followers, the museum can increase its efforts to advertise its products, interact with customers
and gain valuable feedback on social media platforms.
Rising Population: The current population has been growing steadily and is expected to grow
even faster in the future. This proves beneficial for the museum as the number of potential
customers it can target will also keep increasing.
THREATS:
Threats are external, uncontrollable factors that can cripple chances of your success.
Technological Development: Customers attracted by competitor's new technology or innovation
are lost to the museum decreasing its overall market share (Fait and et.al., 2017) In addition to
this, any change in museum's technology must be followed by the training of workforce in said
technology. Constant changes require regular training to use these technologies, which increase
operational costs significantly.
Supplier's Power: The power of suppliers to negotiate prices has increased over the years with a
decrease in actual suppliers. Therefore, input costs can rise for the museum in future.
Political Stability: The looming threat of Brexit proves as a business barrier, incurring avoidable
costs and lowering performance efficiency.
Exchange Rate: The exchange rate of Sterling has been mercurial recently, with analysts
predicting a fall in its value post Brexit. This poses concerns as museum's suppliers are local but it
trades internationally.
Competitors: Increase in the number of competitors influences the museum's decisions to
continue and expand its operations and customer base (Watson, 2019)
.

Environmental Concerns: The growing trend for environmentally sustainable products acts as a
major threat when selling products/services which are deemed not environmentally friendly. It
draws unhealthy criticism and publicity to the museum and affects its brand perception.
To evaluate the possibility for its expansion in the future
The Southern rail, which is no longer in work to take visitors to British museum has resulted in
declined number of visitors to destination. In future train should be set in motion and transport
should be expanded with more options so that the number of visitors can be regained again. The
British library and Natural history museum of London created as result of expansion should steal
the limelight too(Gürel, Tat 2017). They should be styled in such a way which attracts the
visitors to come and visit the museum again.
Out of 8million objects in the museum only 50,000 are in exhibition. The museum can think
of rotating the objects to be displayed which keeps people intertwined to museum Use of social
networking sites as a platform to influence people and attract them to visit the museum is pretty
easy and accepted way to expand the tourism here. Various challenges, games, and other fun
activities at social platform help the website of the place to gain public attention. The whole
online world is progressing towards videos.When the organisation get into campaign, it showcase
the world what it is and what it can do which allure people globally to visit the place and thus
expansion of museum as a tourist place occur(Satya, et.al 2018).
Near by British museum there are many things to be explored which are just few minutes
away from it. This includes Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, Nuts Pub Crawl London, Memphis the
Musical, etc. This makes visiting British Museum a vacation for 4-5 days not just a one day go to
trip. For future expansion of British museum a holistic view has to be adopted. The museum has
exhibited art and sculptures from almost every part of the world and from various religious
belief .Globally extending and preaching this heritage of people around the globe will surely
increase amount of visitors from every part of the world.
The museum authorities should make efforts for easy currency exchange and serve with
great hospitality making everything easy for the global visitors.