Economy 20 percent increase
Despite Drop in Visitors – Why America’s Top Museums Are Raising Tickets at Record Prices
Status: 11.08.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Source: Justin Lane/epa/dpa/archive image
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In the US, ticket prices for many famous museums are increasing drastically. Houses like the Guggenheim in New York not only suffer from higher operating costs, but also from low visitor numbers. The rise in prices is often also due to past omissions.
The Guggenheim in New York has always been a museum of superlatives. The building, which coils like a snail around a concrete rotunda, is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It is also the oldest of all Guggenheim museums in the world.
Another record was set this week: the art facility is now one of the most expensive museums in the United States. Instead of $25, adults now have to pay $30 – an increase of 20 percent.
Many prestigious museums in the US are suddenly asking for record prices. Because the cultural institutions are in crisis. While their costs are rising drastically, many visitors have not returned to the institutions after the Corona pandemic.
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The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York also raised ticket prices by 20 percent to $30 three weeks ago, and the Art Institute of Chicago even increased them from $25 to $32.
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As expected, this is not well received by visitors. “The Guggenheim is too small to justify a $30 entrance fee,” wrote a user on the social network “X”. It is now “art for the rich”, criticizes another.
But the institutions feel compelled to take the step. “At a time when the cost of goods and services continues to rise and we are recovering from the ongoing financial strain of the pandemic, the museum needs to increase its admission prices,” said Sara Fox, spokeswoman for the Guggenheim Museum.
For years the prices were often not increased
In addition, the aim is to continue to enable dynamic exhibitions and a beautiful visitor experience with the additional income.
The fact that record admission prices are being charged also has something to do with a past omission, says museum scientist Marcus Harshaw from Johns Hopkins University: “Many museums have not increased prices since 2008 or even before that.”
So far, people have simply saved to compensate for the increased costs. But in the current economic situation, the cost increase has even accelerated. At some point there comes a point where you have to weigh up: “How much do we save and how much do we have to adjust the prices,” says Harshaw.
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“Tipflation” in the USA
At the same time, museums are struggling with another problem: an acute decline in visitors. After the end of the corona pandemic, not nearly as many guests flocked to the houses as before the crisis, as a recent study by the American Alliance of Museums shows.
According to this, just a third of the facilities have visitor numbers that are at least at the level before the pandemic. One in eight museums in the United States is only seeing 50 percent occupancy compared to before. With the now increased ticket prices, the operators are trying to compensate for these failures.
Museum expert Harshaw does not believe that the expensive tickets are now driving away even more guests. “In many cases, the recent price increases have not had a negative impact on visitor numbers,” he says.
Necessity makes some museums inventive
But the aim of the facilities is to win more guests again – instead of just maintaining the low level. To do this, they sometimes rely on unconventional offers.
For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has been offering a “Date Night” for a few months, allowing what is otherwise frowned upon: loud live music with snacks and cocktails between the valuable works of art. “Museums are constantly looking for new ways to engage their audiences and generate new revenue streams,” says Harshaw. It doesn’t matter whether it’s through a higher entrance fee, donations or even state aid.
The Guggenheim in New York can hardly rely on the latter. The state is providing around $520,000 this year – with a total budget of almost $68 million. And so the visitors will have to pay the higher bills for the foreseeable future.
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