NAICS 712Subsector · 3-digitlocal market2 market records

Heritage institutions

SoftwareMuseum Collections & Heritage Management

This subsector comprises establishments primarily engaged in preserving and exhibiting objects, sites and natural wonders of historical, cultural and educational value. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 1,403
Under 10 employeesA: 64%

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–455439%

5–934425%

10–1923617%

20–4915411%

50–99534%

100–199322%

200–499211%

500+91%

Of 1,403 Canadian establishments with employees, 64% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Quebec32423%

Ontario31522%

British Columbia20915%

Alberta14110%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, US · opened 2020

81.3%

1 year

70.3%

3 years

57.1%

5 years

40.8%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

No US figure is shown. County Business Patterns is coded to the 2017 US edition of NAICS; this code either does not exist there, names a different industry, or is outside the programme's coverage (most of agriculture, rail, postal and public administration are). A figure is attached only where both the code and the title agree.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 712, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIED

Museums, zoos and heritage sites are publicly or philanthropically funded. Not an entry market in the ordinary sense.

Who sets the price: Public funding and admissions.
The software it runs on: Collections management and ticketing.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 7121

Museum & Heritage Site OperationOne thing must be true

binding constraint: willingness to pay

Museums, galleries and historic sites are public or charitable institutions almost without exception, and the reason is arithmetic rather than tradition: admissions do not cover a collection's care, a building's upkeep and a curatorial staff. The Department of Canadian Heritage measures the gap. In 2017 the not-for-profit heritage sector took over $2.6B of revenue, of which earned revenue — admissions, shops, rentals — was $869.2M, 33%, while the three levels of government supplied $1.4B, 51.7% [A]; by the 2020 data year earned revenue had fallen to $593M and unearned income was 76% of the total [A]. An entrant cannot reach the other two-thirds: a for-profit museum cannot issue a tax receipt or apply for an operating grant, and visitors have never paid what the institution costs. 1,403 Canadian establishments, 64% with fewer than ten employees [A] describes a field of small community museums run on municipal support and volunteers — who outnumber paid staff nearly two to one [A] — with 62 large institutions above them. Heritage also carries a fixed cost that performing arts does not: a collection must be conserved whether or not anyone visits. The reachable businesses are commercial attractions that borrow the form — a private aquarium, a themed exhibit, a historic-site concession — and those belong with amusement and recreation at 713, where the operator sets the price. Software sold to museums is screened separately at 712.

NAICS 71214 vendors named8 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Vertical softwareScreened

Museum Collections & Heritage ManagementOne thing must be true

binding constraint: willingness to pay

Incumbent Gallery Systems (TMS) and Axiell

Museums buy with grant money and run on an operating budget that cannot carry a subscription, which is why the category still has perpetual licences and why CollectionSpace exists at all. The pain is genuine, the institution is permanent, and the annual cheque is small enough that a venture-shaped business cannot be built on it. Nothing is disclosed here. Every vendor named on this record is private, or sits inside a parent that does not break the line out, so no revenue floor can be built and the market size is genuinely unknown rather than estimated.

NAICS 7124 vendors namedOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Companies in this industry · 10

Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.

Company	Filed under	Revenue	Rank
AxiellPrivate	Heritage institutions712	—	1/6
CollectionSpacePrivate	Heritage institutions712	—	2/6
eHivePrivate	Heritage institutions712	—	3/6
Federal Crown institutionsPrivate	Heritage institutions7121	—	1/4
Gallery SystemsPrivate	Heritage institutions712	—	4/6
LucideaPrivate	Heritage institutions712	—	5/6
Merlin EntertainmentsDelisted	Heritage institutions7121	—	2/4
PastPerfectPrivate	Heritage institutions712	—	6/6
Provincial and municipal museums and galleriesPrivate	Heritage institutions7121	—	3/4
Ripley EntertainmentPrivate	Heritage institutions7121	—	4/4

Who works here

The occupations employed in Arts, entertainment and recreation, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Tagged to this industry

Managers in art, culture, recreation and sport Librarians, archivists, conservators and curators Occupations related to museums and art galleries

Concentrated in this sectorA

Occupations related to museums and art galleries Mostly one sector 63.2%

Support occupations in accommodation, travel, tourism and amusement services Mostly one sector 58.2%

Tourism and amusement services occupations Mostly one sector 51%

Program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness Mostly one sector 49.8%

Athletes, coaches, referees and related occupations Mostly one sector 45.3%

Managers in art, culture, recreation and sport Mostly one sector 44.1%

Support occupations in art and culture Mostly one sector 41.2%

Logging, forestry, landscaping and other related labourers Mostly one sector 13.7%

Librarians, archivists, conservators and curators One industry 10.4%

Technical occupations in motion pictures, broadcasting and the performing arts Mostly one sector 5.8%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 2.9%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 2.9%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 1.7%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 1.2%

Other technical trades Across the economy 1.2%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 712, and 11 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
7121	Heritage institutions	1,403	Museum & Heritage Site Operation

Alongside it, under 71 Arts, entertainment and recreation

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
711	Performing arts, spectator sports and related industries	5,701	Performing Arts Company Minor-League Sports Team & Racetrack Event Ticketing & Venue Operations Software+2 more
713	Amusement, gambling and recreation industries	11,524	Family Entertainment Centres Attractions & Family Entertainment Centre Software Casino & Gaming Management Systems+6 more