Major French museums overcome the crisis: in 2023, they received more visitors than before the pandemic.

he Louvre Museumhe Palace of Versailleshe Pompidou Centre And museums Quai Branly, Orsay And the orangery In 2023, they regained their pre-coronavirus visitation levels, and in some cases, were even higher, even setting a historic record.

he Louvre MuseumThe museum, which like other large French museums published the first figures this Wednesday, received 8.9 million visits last year, representing a 14% increase compared to 2022, and almost returned to the level recorded before the outbreak of Covid-19. 68% of the visitors were foreigners, the majority of whom came from the United States (13%) and neighboring countries, such as Italy (7%), the United Kingdom and Germany (5%), and Spain (4%).

Asian visitors, who before the coronavirus were among the most numerous in the world Louvre MuseumThey recovered “very gradually” in 2023, and represent only 2.5%, compared to 8% in 2018.

This trend was repeated in the palace VersaillesThe number of visitors, 8,168,062 in 2023, represents an increase compared to 6.5 million in 2022. In 2019, the Chinese occupied the second nationality with 13% of visitors, followed by the Japanese and South Koreans with 4%, while in 2023 attendance rates were much lower for all nationalities. In the Asian continent.

he Orsay Museum Last year, it received a record number of 3,871,498 visitors, an increase of 18% from 2022, and 6% from 2019, which is the historic ceiling so far. There's the show Manet/DegasThe exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was the event that attracted the most attention, with 669,160 visitors.

he Pompidou Centre It received 2,621,696 visitors in 2023, a number less than 3 million, and still far from the 3.27 million recorded in 2019, before the Covid pandemic. Number of group visitors National Museum of Modern Artassociated with Pompidou Centreit was 1.4 million.

he Quai Branly Museum It welcomed 1,410,000 visitors in 2023, which represents a 40% increase compared to 2022, and even higher compared to the years before Covid-19. The museum links this to the “important success” achieved by the temporary exhibitions presented last year. In addition, outside their facilities they have also promoted dozens of international projects.

he Orangerie Museum Recorded 1,239,539 visitors, an increase of 22% from 2022 and 20% from 2019. Orsay Museum as in orangery Visits by people under 26 from the EU increased by 5% and 6%, respectively.

Both also had 21% larger in-school crowds than the previous year. In total, 180,000 students visited the exhibitions. The largest nationality, as is common in most Parisian museums, was French. Among foreigners, Americans and Italians visited these two museums the most.

By 2024, Louvre Museum It intends to increase the standard prices of its tickets, from 17 to 22 euros, and Palace of Versailles From 19.50 to 21 euros. one of Orsay And the orangery They maintain their ticket prices, as well as free tickets for the first Sunday of every month with advance reservations.

fountain: Evie.

the pictures: Evie/Environmental Protection Agency (Yuan Valat); Reuters (Charles Plateau) and EVI/EPA (Ian Langsdon/Archive).