We eat for all sorts of reasons: a hurried breakfast meets a physiological need; a leisurely meal with family and friends meets a social and spiritual one. Similarly, visitors to museums and other educational leisure settings come with a variety of needs, goals and expectations, i.e. different motivations. There are various models for visitor motivation, such as Packer’s (2004) motivational categories, and Falk’s (2009) “identity” model. Research has shown that visitor motivations help shape the visit experience, determine what visitors find satisfying and influence their long-term meaning making. In this session, you will hear from researchers who have developed tools for quantifying visitor motivation and experience, and a museum professional with experience in implementing such tools.