What Visitors Bring: Intentions, Meaning-Making, and the Museum Experience among Gen Z in Ahmedabad

Abstract

This thesis finds the interconnectedness between the visitation intentions, on-site behaviours, and post visit experiences as neither linear nor predictable, rather, they are affected by a continuous negotiation between the visitor's sense of self, the social context of the visit, and the semiotic and spatial conditions the museum provides. The study focuses on the GenZ museum goers in Ahmedabad, as that is a context which is largely absent from the museum studies literature. Drawing on qualitative data from in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations from museum visits across four museums, six recurring patterns are found that describe how GenZ visitors navigate the museum experience. The findings reveal that intentions are highly fluid, and visitor experiences are shaped by social context, semiotic hospitality, and spatial conditions that the museum provides. The findings argue that satisfaction for GenZ is not a stable function of content quality but is produced at the intersection of intentional state, social composition, semiotic accessibility, and spatial experience. The study contributes both a geographic intervention, situating these dynamics within an Indian urban context, and a set of conceptual extensions with implications for museum practitioners and future researchers.