While crowds descended on the Château de Versailles, Eiffel Tower Stadium, and other venues during the Paris Olympics to watch sport, the world’s most visited museum emptied out.
During the Games, between July 27 and August 11, attendance at the Louvre fell by 22 percent compared to the same period last year. The museum’s weekly attendance dropped to 331,759 people, or 23,644 daily visitors on average.
Visitor numbers also shrank in the buildup to the games, according to the Louvre, which saw 166,604 people walk through its heavily secured doors between July 15 and 26. This marks a massive 45 percent drop from the figures for the same dates in 2023.
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One thing that contributed to the lower than usual numbers was the fact that the museum was closed for the Games’ opening ceremony on July 25 and 26.
“The museum’s attendance, during this period preceding the opening of the Olympic Games, was strongly impacted by the integration of the museum into the security perimeter set up by the authorities during the nine days preceding the opening ceremony, with restricted access to the Seine quays and the closure of most bridges and certain metro and RER [train] stations,” a Louvre spokesperson said in a statement.
Overall visitor figures at the Louvre for 2024 to date stand at a shade over 5 million, a decrease of 4 percent compared to the same period last year.
At the beginning of this year, the museum hiked its basic ticket price from $19 to $24.50 so it could subsidize free admission programs for some visitors. It was its first price increase since 2017, and it is also being used to offset an almost 90 percent jump in energy bills.
The move is part of a plan implemented by the Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, to control attendance, which hit 8.9 million visitors in 2023, landing the institution the title of the world’s most visited museum.