Each month the Scattered Clouds blog takes a look at the wonderful world of tourism through a data and evidence-led lens, all in pursuit of transforming tourism sector data into insight of course!
Museums - February 2026
There are museums that touch on the importance of collecting and analysing statistics, for example the Florence Nightingale Museum (Florence was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society) and museums that reference the development of tourism, for example Leicester Museum & Art Gallery which has run exhibitions telling the story of why, courtesy of its association with Thomas Cook, Leicester is sometimes cited as the “birthplace of popular tourism”.
To the best of my knowledge there isn’t a museum dedicated to tourism statistics, a shame, but perhaps this is the case because I am probably in a minority of one in believing that such an institution would make for a good day out!
Anyway, enough frivolity, I thought this month I’d write about the importance of museums within the visitor economy.
Britain’s first public museum opened its doors back in 1683, and the Ashmolean is still welcoming visitors some 343 years later. Over the years other of our major universities have joined Oxford in seeing the benefits of having museums as part of their portfolio, including Cambridge and Manchester.
Towards the end of March the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions will publish figures for 2025 detailing how many visits attractions up and down the country welcomed last year, but looking back at 2024 the gold and silver medals both went to museums, with the British Museum having welcomed close to 6.5 million visits and Natural History Museum 6.3 million.
Analysis of questions added to the International Passenger Survey by VisitBritain reveals that 30% of inbound visitors, and 49% of those who are visiting for a holiday, step foot in at least one museum or art gallery during their stay. Given that most international visitors aren’t heading to Britain for a “sun and sand” experience museums play a pivotal role in providing a reason to visit, as well as shelter on one of those rare days when there’s precipitation in the air.
Although the Nations Brand Index study doesn’t specifically cover museums, it is a useful tool for understanding just how important museums can be in showcasing our culture and heritage. This is also a strand of our national brand that remains consistently strong, with the 2025 study seeing our rank out of fifty nations for “Is rich in historic buildings and monuments” being 4th, while for “Has vibrant city life and urban attractions” we were ranked 6th.
One area of weakness in how Britain is perceived overseas as a visitor destination relates to our value for money offer. But many of our most well-known museums represent a vital tool in our kit for challenging these perceptions, with the national museums having been free to visit for the past quarter century.
It isn’t just high profile museums that are often free to visit for inbound and domestic visitors alike, among those museums and art galleries that participated in the most recent wave of VisitEngland’s Visitor Attraction Survey no fewer than 227 reported that they did not levy an admission charge in 2024.
The DCMS Participation Survey is a resource I often turn to as it provides a wealth of insights relating to how adults across England interact with culture, heritage and tourism. The most recent annual set of data relates to 2024/5 and found that 41% of those quizzed had visited a museum or gallery during their leisure time in the past year.
The study allows us to explore more than just whether or not people go to museums, as among the other questions posed is one that asks about the reasons for having visited a museum or gallery in the past twelve months.
The top reasons were; “General interest in the subject of the museum or collection” (67%), “To spend time with family or friends” (53%), “To learn something new” (40%), “To see a specific exhibition or display” (35%) and “It was low cost or free” (34%).
This underscores that what influences how we spend our leisure time and income is varied, in part it is about the “features” on offer, that is to say the museum collection, but equally it is about the “benefits” that the experience will deliver, for example being able to spend time with family and friends.
Only mentioned by 8%, but worth noting, is another reason given by those who had visited a museum, namely “Because there were amenities or free facilities (for example toilets, communal spaces, cafes, shops), so never underestimate the value of being able to attract folk through the door courtesy of being able to offer them a clean loo, cup of coffee and a browse around the gift shop!
Museums, along with all other visitor economy businesses and organisations, have faced relentless headwinds in recent years, including the pandemic, spiralling costs (of employment and other inputs) and weak consumer confidence, not to mention the challenge of having to compete against other real or self-created demands on our leisure time, such as scrolling through social media.
We can end on a spot of good news though, as in January £1.5 billion of government investment in arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings across England was announced. Museums are set to be one of the main beneficiaries of the fund with investment totalling £760 million. While much of this will be heading to the national museums sponsored by DCMS, local and regional museums are set to receive a £160 million share to help tackle a backlog of maintenance and other issues. In addition to helping to make sites more accessible in a physical sense, hopefully some sites will be able to boost how accessible the interpretation of their collection is. From a visual impairment perspective cabinets which contain an obscure object alongside a printed label using font size 11 is suboptimal!
Museums don’t have to be famous and attracting visitors in their millions each year to be of value, local museums often run primarily by a dedicated band of volunteers are in their own way just as valuable a part of Britain’s visitor economy ecosystem.