Introduction:

the Museum of the Mummies of Guanajuato (MUMOG) is one of the most important in Mexico, and is the second source of income for the municipality of Guanajuato: in 2019 received more than 619 thousand visitors, and collected more than 43 million pesos. The objective of this research was to develop a model of second-order structural equations to analyze the relationship between cultural experience and quality of service, through the second order constructs response and experience, taken from the dimensions presented for the cultural experience in the Skot-Hansen (2005) and Linko & Silvanto (2011) model, and for quality of service in the SERVQUAL model. Experience addresses the reflective constructs of entertainment, enlightenment, empowerment, and economic impact. Response is based on the reflective constructs tangible elements, reliability, security, and empathy.

Method:

this empirical research was conducted as an explanatory, non-experimental and transversal type, with a quantitative approach. The statistical technique of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used. For the empirical verification of the proposed model, 392 surveys were carried out among museum goers with an instrument based on the dimensions of cultural experience and quality of service, as well as sociodemographic aspects.

Results:

response to customer needs does have a positive and significant impact on experience. It is shown that the second-order construct, response, is a reflection of the four dimensions: tangible elements, reliability, security, and empathy. Experience is a reflection of the four dimensions: entertainment, illustration, strengthening and economic impact.

Discussion or conclusion:

the data analysis allowed to verify the proposed structural model and showed that there is a relationship between the aspects: cultural experience and quality of service studied through its dimensions. The museum must provide a certain level of quality of service so that people value their cultural experience when visiting it. This finding is especially important in the study of museums within the tourism sector since the dark museum has been studied relatively little in Mexico and less in Guanajuato. In addition, the use of SEM provides a modern statistical technique to obtain relevant and reliable information for decision-making by museum stakeholders. As a future line of research, the sustainability of the museum should be addressed in the face of saturation of the site.