A Government report shows that visitors to UK museums has fallen for the first time in almost a decade. The decline is attributed to visitors from overseas.
The study by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) looked at sponsored 15
museums (13 nationals, and 2 non-nationals) which provide free entry to their permanent
collections, including the British Museum, Tate, the V&A and Imperial War Museums.
In 2015/16 there were 47.6 million visits to DCMS-sponsored Museums – a
decline of 6.2 per cent on 2014/15. The 2.8% decline is almost all attributable to a fall in visitors from overseas, despite an increase in tourists visiting the UK. The British Museum bucked the overall trend reporting an increase of in visitors from overseas. 64% of the Museum’s visitors are international.
The British Museum was also the most visited, with 6.9 million visits, followed by the Tate Gallery Group with 6.7 million visits
There was a 14.4 per cent decrease in visits by children aged 15 and under, from 9.3 million in 2014/15 to 7.9 million in 2015/16. The Science Museum Group and the Natural History Museum had the greatest number of child visits.
https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/museum-visitor-numbers-drop-first-time-decade
