Salar Jung Museum Visitors Survey Report

Submitted to

Ms Jaisree Anand- Dean/Professor (Hospitality)

NITHM, Telecom Nagar

Gachhi Bowli, Hyderabad- 500032

Andhra Pradesh

By

Bhaskar Roy

MBA 3rd semester Batch-A

NITHM
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Objective of the report…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4-5

Limitation and Observation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6

Conclusion and Suggestions………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I had foreseen this survey as an OPPURTUNITY to learn and to get an overview on one of
the components of research. My hearty and warm regards to my seniors Vikrant, Sandeep and
Mahendar- proud alumni from NITHM, Dean Hospitality Ms Jaishree Anand and last but not
the least our most humble director Dr. E. Shivnagi Reddy who also heads the Archeology
department of the museum, for giving me this break to experience Research Methodolgy into
the practical aspect. This has also binded my confidence in Entrepreneurship to have the guts
for the relative risks involved.

I am also grateful to the Director Keeper of the Museum Shri Veerendra for his cooperation
regarding permission, provision of stationary and other materials including temporary passes
for all of us.

My best wishes for my seniors with their research assignment and to my college NITHM.
 OBJECTIVE OF THE REPORT

To take survey at Salar Jung Museum in form of series of questionnaire asked from the
visitors on how to improve visitor’s footfall and satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION

The Salar Jung Museum is an art museum at Dar-Ul-Shifa, on the southern bank of the
Musi river in the city of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India which has an exquisite collection
of priceless articles like Ivory, Marble sculptures etc. of over 1 million, 90,000 of which still
lies in the store room. It welcomes its visitors with a huge portrait of Salar Jung III. Adjacent
to it is a museum shop for the visitors to have memorabilia.

The Salarjung Museum is the third largest museum in India housing the biggest one-man
collections of antiques in the world. It is well known throughout India for its prized
collections belonging to different civilizations dating back to the 1st century. Nawab Mir
Yousuf Ali Khan Salar Jung III (1889-1949), former Prime Minister of the seventh Nizam of
Hyderabad, spent a substantial amount of his income over thirty five years to make this
priceless collection, his life's passion. The collections left behind in his ancestral palace,
'Diwan Deodi' were formerly exhibited there as a private museum which was inaugurated by
Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951. Old timers believe that the present collection constitutes only half
of the original art wealth collected by Salar Jung III. His employees siphoned off part of it,
since Salar Jung was a bachelor and depended upon his staff to keep a vigil. Some more art
pieces were lost or stolen during the shifting of the museum from Dewan Devdi to the present
site. Later in 1968, the museum shifted to its present location at Afzalgunj and is
administered by a Board of Trustees with the Governor of Andhra Pradesh as ex-officio
chairperson under the Salar Jung Museum Act of 1961.

The museum building in a semicircular shape with 38 galleries, spread on three floors,
displays only a part of the original collections. The ground floor has 20 galleries and the first
floor has 18 galleries. The exhibits on different subjects are displayed in separate galleries.

The second floor is Administration block. CRPF Security officers are on vigil round the
clock.

Guides are available at fixed timings free of charge.

Important Exhibits

There are Aurangzeb's sword, daggers belonging to empress Noor Jehan, emperors Jehangir
and Shah Jehan, the turbans and chair of Tipu Sultan, furniture from Egypt, paintings on
display. Among the sculptures stands out the world famous statue of Veiled Rebecca(a
biblical character) by G.B. Benzoni, an Italian sculptor, in 1876. Her beautiful face hazily is
visible through a marble but gossamer veil. Equally captivating is a double-figure wood
sculpture. It stands before a mirror and shows the facade of a nonchalant Mephistopheles and
the image of a demure Margaretta in the mirror. The eastern section is of equal importance
with its wide variety of silk weaving and different art forms, including layer wood cutting
paintings, porcelain works and many more, dating back to almost 2nd century.

The Musical Clock

A 400 years old Musical chiming greets the visitor in the clock room. The clock was
purchased by Salar Jung I from Kenley and Cook co. in England. Every hour, a timekeeper
emerges from the upper deck of the clock to strike a gong as many times as it is the hour of
the day. It was assembled in Calcutta of more than 350 parts. It chimes in every 15 minutes.
A huge gathering can be seen in the clock room 15 minutes prior every hour. There are
ancient Chandeliers in the form of obelisks to huge and modern clocks of the twentieth
century, many of which are not in display. Others in the range vary from miniature clocks
which need a magnifying glass to imbibe their beauty and complexity to stately grandfather
clocks from as far away as France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Britain.

The Indian Parliament has declared the museum an Institution of National Importance.

The museum is open from 10:00 to 17:00 (except on Fridays).

 LIMITATIONS & OBSERVATIONS

1) Human resource- number of persons undertaking this survey (5) was half considered
to what was originally required. This was realized when we were given the target of
2500 respondents views in 5 days.
2) As the number of our team members was limited, we had to increase individual
targets i.e. 2500 divided by 5 which is 500 in 5 days and 100 in each. This resulted in
fall of quality of the responses due to lack of time spend on each respondent. The
pattern of questionnaire was as such that it was necessary to explain what needs to be
answered and how.
3) The survey form was in English language which required the respondents to be
English literate. This was one of the greatest limitations because the visitor’s crowd
flocking the museum comprised majority of non- English literate.
4) The days involved in our survey comprised majority of female correspondents who
were from colleges or schools. A large of portion of only young crowd was eager to
fill the forms. Those travelling in family or small groups provided only one
representative usually the head of the family.
5) The second half of the day, i.e. afternoon yielded more people compared to morning.
However, most of the tourists seemed to be tired after already touring the city whole
morning and showed disinterest to look at the forms. Hilarious part was that most of
the less-educated crowd use to run away at our sight assuming us to belong to some
charity organisation approaching them for money.
6) The directions for the visitor were quiet confusing as the room numbers didn’t follow
the series of their location.
7) The food at Haritha cafeteria was not economic, which the survey results too support
my findings as the visitors mostly belong to the middle class and complained about
the prices. We also didn’t find any other food outlets in the proximity of the museum.
8) Auto rickshaws too were very pushy with the visitors in demanding fare and places to
visit after the museum trip.
9) There were only 2 guides available in room number 2. Many visitors requested for
guide as there was insufficient information about the articles in many galleries.
 CONCLUSION/SUGGESTIONS

1) Either the number of days undertaken for the survey should have been increased or
the number of responses collected should have been limited between 30-40 per person
per day to achieve desired results and high quality of analysis.
2) At the end of the survey, we were able to collect around 1800 responses. It would
have been more effective and efficient if the questionnaire had been printed in three
languages- English, Hindi and Telugu. Also, the vocabulary could have been made
easier to understand.
3) Proper direction boards should be installed in the museum. Staff should also be
trained in being more pro-active while helping the visitors.
4) Cafeteria should economise their menu.
5) More transportation services should be provided for the visitors and the fares charged
by the auto-rickshaws should be controlled.

Finally, I would like to share my bit of experience about the museum, staff and my
team.

I would love to visit the museum again. My last day experience was very pleasurable.
We were given a target of 50 respondents each. A little disappointed though from
previous days experiences, we felt it would be difficult to reach the goal on a slack
day, when the verdict of Babri incident in Ayodhya was to be delivered and a day
before the immersion of Lord Ganesh Idols, which obviously affected the
visitors/tourists count. However, we were fortunate to find a huge group of school
children entering the museum. It was challenging task to get the forms filled from
them as they were too young to respond maturely. Luckily, one of their teachers
caught me thinking me to be a staff and enquired me about the guides. I escorted and
cooperated with them as the guides were not available. They agreed me to least
explain them on the main attractions of the museum- The Musical Clock, Veiled
Rebecca, The Man with the Lamp and The wooden 2 sided sculptor of Margeretta and
Mephistopheles. I was glad to explain them successfully and pleased to be confronted
with questions from the anxious eager kids, a part which involved me in gathering
previous knowledge on the attractions. They, in return of my gesture saved my day by
filling those forms and reaching my goals which otherwise would have been a
difficult objective. I too in exchange have learned a lot from them.