Good Visitor Performance and Financial Mismanagement in Guan Lin

Guanlin is traditionally a well established site, with several positive elements of interest: •its historical and religious value attracts people from inside and outside Luoyang since years, constantly ensuring good performances in terms of visitors; •consequently, it presents good financial performances, and the site is able to reach self- sufficiency (from 2001 the site does not receive governmental support for ordinary activities). •However, some recent decisions made things more complicated than before. Despite good economic performance, the institution is today in loss due to a loan contracted in 2002 for the enlargement of the square in front of the entrance of the site: a case of financial mis-management which creates problems of sustainability in the long term. •Economic self-sufficiency is not coupled with autonomy in terms of decision, especially regarding financial issues (the debt) and human resource management. A governance issue is therefore emerging, with the need to better understand the distribution of responsibility, rights and duties of the entities. The structure of this chapter is as follows: 1. a preliminary short historical reconstruction of the of this institution is provided; 2. an appreciation of the museum’s effectiveness will be carried on, in terms of both back office issues and visitors’ orientation; 3. aspects related to museums efficiency will be addressed, investigating both procedural and substantial issues in managing human & financial resources; 4. some final conclusions and implications will be searched for.