Museum marketing in the context of public relations for marketing purpose: A study on the websites of private museums in Turkey

Museums exhibiting art, culture and history are everliving and communal hafizs that convey the past to the present. There has been some developments and changes in museum and museology approaches along with the social, economic, political, culturel and technological developments. Museums that protected and exhibited their collections within the scope of only their basic responsibilities at one time gradually constructed with the modern museology once again. Marketing methods and technics in the contexts of new museology approach which gives access to the visitors and prioritises visitor's satisfaction and loyalty, enhancing the quality of the visit through mass media, education programmes, social and cultural events has started to be applied in modern days' museums and museology. In this study, 98 out of 269 private museums being bound up with the terms and conditions of duty, administration, supervision and control of the T.C.Ministry of Culture and Tourism and General Directorate of Museums, not neglecting both artistic concerns and scientific actions, when achieved successes, administration and operation functions are taken into consideeration, the museums which have an overall active system and activities in terms of communication acitivities and have corporate web sites have been analyzed analyzed.In this study, determining the marketting purpose public relations activities in museums through the datas attained using the content analysis method is intended.In the light of the obtained data , It is come to conclusion that the analyzed museums don't process professionally as part of marketing purpose public relations on their websites and they don't take support, that's why, they don't carry on a sufficient level of communication activities.