Museums, AD Arte will not be sole sales channel for tickets. And dealers will remain

Halt by the General Directorate of Museums after last May 11’s sending of an internal note to the autonomous museums, in which the institutes were asked to prepare to free themselves from the concessionaires of the ticket offices in order to manage them autonomously with the future internal platform “AD Arte” (a note that we improperly defined as a “circular” and whose text we had reported in almost full): last Monday, in fact, director general Massimo Osanna signed a new document in his own hand, sent to the autonomous museums, the Regional Museum Directorates and the State Museums Directorate of the City of Rome, to clarify the contents of the note that museums suddenly found in their email inboxes.

The good news for ticketing concessionaires, who for years have been managing the sale of admission tickets to museums while collecting a portion of them (in 2019, out of 197.8 million euros of tickets sold by state museums, 26 ended up in concessionaires’ coffers), is that, contrary to what it might have seemed from the previous note (which basically gave museums until May 19 to identify a date for the termination of the concession and a maximum of 120 days to have it terminated), the link between museums and concessionaires will not be cut.

But let’s go in order. The new note first specifies the nature of the AD Arte project, specifying, among other things, that it will not be an exclusive sales platform, but will interface with other ticketing providers. AD Arte, “among other activities,” the text says, “envisages the creation of a platform intended to deliver ’fruition’ and ’management services.’ In particular, it will allow to manage online ticketing services, filling a huge gap, if we consider that currently, of the 498 places of culture, only about 75 are managed by a concessionaire: it will be possible to simplify in this way the access to the places of culture by obtaining the admission ticket, even free of charge, directly online through the different channels such as mobile application (iOS/Android) and website, taking advantage of the most common virtual payment methods. In addition to titles for individual places of culture, the platform will also be able to manage ’cards’ or ’passes’ for multiple places of culture adhering to specific initiatives. In this regard, it is reiterated that the platform is not designed as an exclusive online ticketing channel but is set up so that it can interface with other online ticketing providers to enable cultural venues that already have a concessionaire and have e-ticketing systems in place to continue using them. Connected to the platform will be a mobile app that will be the means by which visitors can interact with the museum before, during, and after their visit. The app will also be designed to enable the enjoyment of accessible content of various kinds such as audio and video (LIS).”

The goal, the text reads immediately afterward, “is to arrive, especially when the digital population has spread, at the almost entirely online sale of museum tickets, passing through a single portal called ’Museitaliani.’ ’ A digital transformation that has already taken place in the sale of rail and air tickets and in the automation involved in the payment of highway tolls.”

So far so good: but what about the most discussed point of the past few days, namely the relationship with concessionaires? Hosanna explains it immediately afterwards: “If, therefore, the commissioning of the platform will in no way compromise existing relationships with concessionaires already identified through Consip tenders or through tenders independently concluded by the individual Institutes, where these have concessions under extension and have not yet started new tenders or are not about to start them they will be able to benefit - even if only temporarily, and in any case until they have identified a new concessionaire - from the AD Arte Platform. It should therefore be clarified that the sending of the communication by May 19, 2023, is addressed exclusively to those institutions with respect to which additional services and/or ticketing services are currently provided by virtue of extensions and/or repeated renewals and the Institute has not yet put in place all the preliminary operations for a new tender. The deadline identified in the communication of 09.05.2023, elapsing from the sending of the communication to the date of termination of the concessionary relationship, is therefore only indicative and remains in the hands of each Institute, which will be well able to define the timing and manner of the transition. With particular regard to the institutes that have ongoing concessory relationships about to come to an end, the same will be able to assess, while waiting to join the e-ticketing platform of this Directorate, the existence of the conditions to proceed to a possible technical extension of the existing concessions, in order to continue to guarantee the services ex art. 117 Dlgs n. 42/2004.”

The last point concerns a very thorny issue, that of personnel. “Dispelling any scaremongering that some newspapers have helped to create,” Osanna writes, “it is reiterated, as already specified in the previous note, that the legislation currently in force (Art. 39 of Decree Law No. 144 of September 23, 2022, converted into law on November 17, 2022) allows those who would like to internalize the service through Ales s.p.a. to resort to the social clause, which will therefore allow them to maintain all the operators currently in service. Finally, in the event that some Institutes would like to resort to flanking the platform with a service concession in order to have staff allocated to all the collateral activities to those of ticket issuance (e.g., reception services, accounting reporting etc.), nothing obviously stands in the way on the part of this Directorate.”

“The interest of this Directorate General,” the note concludes, “is to ensure, without interruption, and with high quality standards the services aimed at the enhancement of all institutes and places of culture.” Much ado about nothing? One would think so, given the director general’s clarifications: certainly, if the first note had been clearer (and if the second follows up, as stated in the opening, “to requests for clarification received from some institutes,” it means that it was not so clear even for its recipients), perhaps there would have been much less concern.

Image: the ticket office of the Borghese Gallery, Rome

Museums, AD Arte will not be sole sales channel for tickets. And dealers will remain

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.