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Visitor numbers at the world-famous museum have plummeted 72% over the last year
Chris Tebbutt | Planet Attractions | 12 Jan 2021
Attendance at the Louvre was down nearly six million visitors in 2020 Credit: Patrick Langwallner on Unsplash
The Coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the world’s most-visited museum, with the iconic Louvre reporting a massive attendance decline of 72% in 2020.
The world-famous institution in Paris, France, was off to a record-breaking 2020 at the turn of the year.
Over the first four months of 2020, the institution’s Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit was seen by 1,071,840 million visitors. That figure was nearly double the previous record-holder - a Eugène Delacroix Retrospective - which welcomed 540,000 visitors.
These early successes projected bumper attendance figures for the museum, but then the full force of the global pandemic was felt and visitor numbers plummeted.
Aside from social distancing guidelines restricting attendance when open, the Louvre was closed 161 out of a possible 311 days through the year, costing the museum an estimated €90m (US$109.3m, £80.8m) in lost finances.
In addition to enforced closures, due to flight restrictions, much of the Louvre’s international audience were unable to visit, meaning that 70% of its visitors were French.
Despite an attendance decline of 5.9%, the Louvre was by far the most-visited museum in the world in 2019, welcoming 9.6 million visitors. The National Museum of China was some way off in second that year with 7.4 million visitors.
In 2020, visitor figures to the Louvre totalled around 2.7 million visitors, which would have seen it drop off the list of the most 20-visited museums on the 2019 TEA/AECOM Theme and Museum Index. Museums around the world are likely to have similar declines however, with COVID closing most of the world’s museums for significant parts of the year.
The museum is currently closed because of the COVID-19 lockdown in the French capital.
Museums and galleries
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