Proposal Emerges for Foreign Tourists to Pay Entry Fees at the British Museum in England

In England, it is nothing unusual that every art gallery can be accessed freely by the public, regardless of nationality. However, visitors are still required to pay admission fees for special exhibitions held there.

England is known to apply an admission system different from other countries in Europe and the United States. While in those countries visitors are charged fees to enter their art galleries, it is different in England, where no fees are collected for general gallery access.

However, recently, a proposal has emerged from the former Director of the British Museum, Mark Jones, suggesting that foreign tourists visiting museums and galleries in England should pay an entrance fee of £20 (approximately IDR 417,804).

Plans to Introduce Entrance Fees at the British Museum

According to Mark Jones, the revenue obtained from foreign tourists would be very important for the long-term sustainability of the British Museum and other significant cultural sectors in England.

He also estimated that costs between £400 million (approximately IDR 8 trillion) and £500 million (approximately IDR 10 trillion) would be required to renovate the leaking British Museum building and to add additional gallery space greatly needed to display millions of artifacts currently kept in vaults and not accessible to the public.

Based on his proposal, all foreign tourists over the age of 25 would be charged £30 (approximately IDR 626,705) for admission tickets. Meanwhile, those under the age of 25, regardless of nationality, would not be charged any fee.

The money generated from ticket sales would also be used to reduce the prices of tickets for special exhibitions at the British Museum and to lessen the long visitor queues that are often seen winding around the museum building in central London.

As of the writing of this article, there has been no official decision as to whether Mark Jones’s proposal will be implemented by the British Museum.

It was recorded that last year, the British Museum became the most visited tourist destination in England. Figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) showed that the museum recorded more than five million visits in 2023.