How the “MONA Effect” has transformed Tasmanian tourism

By Anne Majumdar

Just over five years since the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) opened its doors in Hobart, Tasmania, its impact on tourism has become so defined it is now known as the MONA Effect.

The museum has notched up more than 1.5 million visits since its launch, with spill-on effects for the state’s tourism industry as a whole.

In digital consultancy group Deepend’s new Indepth: Experience Economy report, MONA’s web manager Eleanor Robb said the benefits for tourism had, at first, simply been a “happy coincidence”, but that in more recent years the museum has built close partnerships with tourism through programs such as its travel with MONA packages which relate to its latest exhibitions.

Meanwhile, its winter festival Dark MOFO, now in its third year, has helped boost visitation during the colder months – previously considered an “undesirable” time for a Tassie holiday.

“In the same way that MONA flipped the museum model on its head, Dark MOFO has flipped traditional tourism patterns and made winter in Tasmania an exciting prospect for interstate visitors,” Robb said.

Its impact is not only restricted to Hobart, with visitors being dispersed around the state thanks to a program of regional supplementary events.

But, while MONA’s exhibits are its major drawcard, Robb believes that MONA’s success is in large part due to its setting.

“I don’t think that transplanting MONA somewhere like London or New York, or even Sydney or Melbourne, have the same effect,” she said. “It is almost like a pilgrimage, travelling to this tiny island at the bottom of Australia.”

Robb highlighted the museum’s “unique” surrounds – it’s mountain backdrop, access via a river and a functioning 50-year old vineyard and winery at the back.

That setting will stand MONA in good stead as initiatives like Google’s Art Project take the world of art online, she believes.

“Cultural institutions are often shaped by their environment, and the experience you get as a cultural consumer from exploring that environment can’t be reproduced digitally,” she said.

Nonetheless, MONA remains committed to digital innovation, as shown by its own initiatives such as the O – a ground-breaking system designed to replace traditional artwork wall labels that enhances a visit to the museum with a range of multimedia features and also post-tour, with visitors able to email themselves a reminder of their path through the exhibits.

And MONA looks set to keep on evolving, with owner David Walsh recently revealing plans for a new hotel for the museum to be called HOtelMOna or HOMO.

“I believe a hotel should make exactly the sort of statement that Mona avoided: it should shout where Mona whispered,” he wrote on the MONA blog back in December.

The hotel will include a library, a function centre, restaurant, bar, theatre, retail outlets and a space in addition to its 160 rooms, some of which will be designed by artists. Walsh confirmed that Marina Abramovic, Brigita Ozolins and James Turrell have already agreed to participate in the project.

The hotel is just one of a number of plans for the site outlined by Walsh with others including a casino, a playground , an extension to the gallery and a boardwalk.

Meanwhile, Tourism Tasmania’s media relations coordinator Sherene Somerville told Travel Weekly that MONA’s success is one sign of Hobart’s “coming of age”.

“We’ve grown up and given ourselves permission to be ourselves,” she said.

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art Dark MOFO Eleanor Robb hobart mona tasmania tourism