Museums and art galleries show greatest shortfall vs pre-pandemic levels despite 2% visitor increase, with average admission rising above £9
New data suggests that England’s museums and art galleries have seen the greatest continued shortfall in admissions since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The data comes from a VisitEngland report on England’s attractions.
Overall, England’s varied attractions reported a collective 1.4% increase in total admission from 2023 to 2024.
But in the latest year, the rate of change in visitor admissions was lower across nearly all attraction categories. The 1.4% overall increase was a result of admission changes from -2% to +11%.
Country parks and leisure/theme parks were among the worst performing, both reporting a -2% change in the past year’s admissions.
The report also said its ‘Museums/ Art Galleries’ sub-set, made of 428 venues and with a 2% increase in visitors in 2024, has shown the greatest continued shortfall compare to pre-pandemic levels “having suffered one of the sharpest declines and limited recovery over the last 12-months.”
The limited growth in visits to all attractions in 2024 is consistent with a decrease in domestic day and overnight trips and is set against the backdrop of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, VisitEngland said.
The report labels this slowed growth ‘a leveling off’ of recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving overall admissions to England’s visitor attractions in 2024 still 27% below 2019 levels.
The best performing attraction categories were farms ( up 11% in 2024 vs 2023), visitor and heritage centres ( up 6%), places of worship (up 5%).
VisitEngland said planned and unplanned closures, reduced opening hours, less successful programming, and pricing structure changes were among the largest challenges to England’s attractions.
It also identified external factors including the cost of living crisis, adverse weather, and civil unrest in summer 2024.
The report concludes that the largest increases in visitor figures correlated with increased opening times, popular / temporary/ new exhibitions, extended and enhanced facilities, increased PR and Marketing activity, and media coverage.
Attraction pricing in 2024
The report also looked at average admission price changes over the last year. It reports that, of those that charge admission, museums and art galleries reported an average admission of £9.13, a 9% increase from 2023.
Visitor and heritage centres that charged an admission fee reported an average price of £9.18, a 5% annual increase.
VisitEngland director Andrew Stokes said: “As these survey results so clearly demonstrate, there remain challenges in getting our sector back to pre-pandemic levels and the cost-of-living impacts continue to bite.
“England’s first-class attractions, from our world-renowned museums, art galleries and historic houses to our places-of-worship, our parks and gardens, remain vitally important to our tourism offer to both international and domestic visitors.”
