Profiling Visitor Behaviour and Barriers to Access at a National Science Centre
Arcadia Social Research helped Questacon uncover who visits, who doesn’t, and why – delivering actionable insights to broaden engagement and boost attendance.
Context
Questacon, Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre, sought to deepen its understanding of its audiences to inform strategic decision-making. Despite high visitor attendances and high satisfaction among visitors, the organisation had a need for additional data-driven insights into visitor profiles, motivations, decision-making, behaviours, and barriers to attendance. Questacon commissioned Arcadia Social Research to conduct an audience research study to answer three key questions:
• Who is visiting Questacon?
• Why are they visiting?
• Who isn’t visiting, and why not?
The findings aimed to optimise marketing, improve accessibility, and enhance audience engagement, supporting evidence-based decision-making.
Approach
Arcadia Social Research employed an integrated quantitative and qualitative methodology. A multi-source data integration process was undertaken during the first phase, consolidating Questacon’s booking and survey data, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) geodemographic data, as well as the MySchool database for school profiles. Extensive analysis was undertaken to highlight geographic and demographic areas of over- and under-visitor representation on characteristics such as SEIFA, remoteness, and distance.
Outputs included geospatial heatmaps to identify underrepresented areas for targeted outreach and marketing. Decision tree modelling was also used to identify key predictors of visitation. Results of visitor surveys previously undertaken by Questacon were also reviewed, and key insights relating to the project objectives were distilled. The second major phase involved 8 focus groups undertaken with members of the local and interstate populations who have and have not visited Questacon to provide a richer understanding of why people do and don’t visit Questacon and the associated decision processes and influencing factors.
Result
The integration of quantitative and qualitative methodologies provided a comprehensive understanding of Questacon's audiences. The quantitative data offered insights into visitor characteristics, satisfaction levels, and visitation patterns, while the qualitative data explored the personal experiences and perceptions of visitors and the factors driving both visitation and non-visitation. Some specific areas of findings included:
Targeted outreach strategies – Identification of areas of lower than expected visitation, enabling refined marketing efforts based on geodemographic insights.
Visitor experience – Despite visitors enjoying high levels of satisfaction as a whole, several opportunities for further enhancing the visitor experience were identified
Optimisation of pricing and accessibility – Evidence showing how cost-sensitive groups interact with Questacon, with potential implications for pricing identified.
A segmentation of Questacon’s audience, encompassing local families, interstate tourists, and STEM enthusiasts.
Actionable marketing recommendations – Findings informed refined digital marketing strategies, improving social media outreach and first-time visitor engagement.
These insights have positioned Questacon to increase accessibility, broaden engagement, further increase visitor satisfaction, and drive higher attendance from underrepresented groups.
Social & Policy Area
Methods
Desktop research
Machine learning and other data mining methods
Geo-spatial data visualisation
Qualitative research (focus groups)
Note
This project was completed when operating as 3arc Social.