British government keeps national museums free for foreigners

The British government announced on Tuesday that national museums would remain free for foreign visitors, after having indicated in March that it was considering charging entry in order to increase their financial resources.

Since 2001, entry and access to the permanent collections of national museums, such as the British Museum or the National Gallery in London, have been free for all and millions of foreigners visit them each year. Visitors only pay for temporary exhibitions.

The government announced in March to “explore” the idea of ​​charging entry to foreign visitors, in order to support the financing of these cultural institutions. “Everyone will continue to benefit from free entry,” the Ministry of Culture finally indicated in a press release.

The government considers that “the repercussions and benefits of such a measure would not be felt uniformly across the sector”. Without specifying by what mechanism, the ministry also considers “that the imposition of fees on foreign visitors could dissuade domestic visitors”.

National museums “attract visitors from all over the world” and bring “more than a billion pounds sterling per year to the economy”, the ministry also highlighted. In 2025, 7.1 million people visited the Natural History Museum and 6.4 million visited the British Museum. According to government figures dating back to the 2023/2024 financial year, overseas visitors accounted for 43% of attendance at national museums in the UK.