National museum leaders highlight risks of charging international visitors

The directors of two national museums have warned that charging international visitors for admission could affect visitor numbers, access and the wider visitor economy, during a London Assembly hearing on the financial sustainability of the city's museums.

Tristram Hunt, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), and Rebecca Pullen, the chief of staff at Imperial War Museums (IWM), gave evidence to the Economy, Culture and Skills Committee on 9 September as part of its examination of museum admissions and financial sustainability.

The hearing comes amid growing calls to introduce an overnight tourist tax in London. London mayor Sadiq Khan recently backed this plan, saying a “modest, well-designed levy” could provide an additional source of funding, support growth and strengthen the capital's offer to visitors.

The debate also comes as the UK Government explores the possibility of charging international visitors at national museums and galleries in England, while retaining free admission for UK residents.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) says it is working with the museum sector on how such a system could operate and will provide an update before the end of 2026.

Hunt raised concerns about the potential impact of charging international visitors, pointing to the V&A's experience when admission charges were introduced in the 1990s.

"I think the more we've dug into the finances led by the Treasury on this, the weaker the case for charging is," he said.

"The last time the V&A introduced charging in 1996-1997, our numbers fell by 50% in terms of those coming through the door. Things have changed since then… but we know numbers fall markedly, and that will affect our business model."

Hunt said charging would have a knock-on impact on museums' commercial income and the wider visitor economy. He questioned how a system distinguishing between UK and international visitors would work in practice given the government's decision to drop a planned digital ID scheme.

The proposal for charging international visitors was predicated on those plans and not having digital ID "would make it harder to implement this policy", he said.

Hunt said national museums have a role that extends beyond tourism and emphasised their importance as institutions providing universal access to collections and culture.

He called for 50% of any cultural element of a potential overnight visitor levy to be directed towards free-entry national institutions.

"If you can pluck the goose without it squealing through a hotel tax, that seems the best way," he told the committee.

Mixed model

Pullen outlined IWM's existing mixed admissions model of free and paid-for sites. IWM London and IWM North are free to enter, while the Churchill War Rooms, HMS Belfast and IWM Duxford all charge admission.

She said the organisation receives roughly a third of its income from DCMS grant in aid, a third from admissions and a third from commercial activity. At the same time, grant funding has declined in real terms, visitor numbers have fallen and costs have increased.

Pullen said introducing charges specifically for international visitors would raise practical concerns, including how museums would establish who was eligible for free admission and the additional staffing, infrastructure and administration that could be required.

She also highlighted the potential effect on visitor numbers and spending beyond the admission ticket, including shops, cafés and exhibitions, as well as the wider tourism economy.

Pullen said charging overseas visitors would raise particular questions for IWM.

“For us that presents specific challenges around the very nature of our content," she said.

"For instance, we make our collections freely available for everyone to come and look at, and that would include, for instance, our Holocaust galleries. Would we be expecting to charge either survivors or descendants of survivors or descendants of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust to come to those galleries? That doesn't feel like the right thing to do. So for us, we think it's very challenging."

The debate coincides with the launch of a new survey by the advocacy group Campaign for the Arts to mark 25 years of universal free admission, which asks the public what the policy has meant to them. The policy was implemented in Scotland and Wales in April 2001 before being introduced at national museums in England on 1 December that year.

Visitor levy

The committee heard feedback on the potential introduction of an overnight visitor levy.

There was broad support for using revenue from any levy to strengthen London's cultural sector, particularly through unrestricted and multi-year funding.

However, questions remained over how any levy would be ring-fenced, whether funding would be genuinely additional to existing government support, and how smaller organisations could access it without creating burdensome application processes.

The committee also heard about the wider challenges facing museums, including rising staffing and National Insurance costs, security and cyber-security requirements, insurance and government indemnity, and the accessibility of London's transport network.

Witnesses discussed the growth in self-generated income among DCMS-sponsored museums and the role of major fundraising and capital campaigns. However, concerns were raised about the distinction between capital funding for projects and the core revenue needed to pay staff, maintain buildings and collections, provide security and keep museums operating.

Independent museums

Rhiannon Goddard, chair of the Association of Independent Museums, told the committee that the funding and admissions model for London's independent museums was very different.

“Most independents don't get any core funding from anywhere, so they raise their own money," she said.

"Probably about two thirds of [London's independents] do charge for admissions and are happy to do so because that's their main way of raising income, that does really affect the way that they are able to operate.”

However, like some of London's nationals, footfall also remains down in the independent sector, which has not seen the "bounce back to pre-Covid levels that we were all hoping for", Goddard said.

Arran Predder, the head of development at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, gave evidence to the committee about the challenges of operating as an independent museum.

“Our costs have gone up 50% in the last two years, which, as a small charity, is a massive challenge to face," he said. "One of the ways we face that is through ticketed admissions. So we are a paid entry venue."

Predder said the museum is facing increased pressure and competition when it comes to fundraising. "I'm going up against much more equipped organisations that have many more staff to to deal with that, going to the same funders," he said. "All of that is combining to make it more competitive than it's ever been, which is having a real knock-on effect in the ability to do our day-to-day business."

Predder added: "What we are missing, and I think increasingly wider in the independent museum sector, is multi‑year commitments… The real key element we're missing is guaranteed year‑on‑year income, and those are the opportunities which are shrinking in the sector."

The committee is due to continue examining the financial sustainability of London's museums over the coming months.

An article on the 25th anniversary of universal free admission to national museums and galleries will be published in the November/December issue of Museums Journal