The major Parisian museums and tourist sites have managed to maintain their attendance in 2024, or even improve it, despite the drop in the number of visitors linked to the Paris Games during the summer, like the Louvre which is approaching the 9 million entries.
The largest museum in the world “maintains (…) its attendance at the level of that of 2023”with 8.7 million visitors (8.9 million in 2023), “in the very unique context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games”he underlined Monday in a press release.
In July and August, a period which included part of the Games, it welcomed 1.3 million visitors, a drop of 14% over one year. The Louvre had to close on July 25 and 26, for the Olympics ceremony.
However, this sporting event has “gave the Louvre global visibility”partly due to the installation of the Olympic cauldron on the Tuileries estate which attracted thousands of spectators every day, underlined the museum, highlighting “good figures all late in the season”.
Last year, the Louvre welcomed 77% foreign visitors, including 13% Americans and many Europeans (5% from Italy, as many from the United Kingdom and Germany, 4% from Spain).
“Chinese visitors (6% compared to 2.4%) are beginning to make a significant comeback”also noted the museum.
More than a quarter of visitors (28%) also benefited from the free admission to the museum, which had increased its prices just a year ago (22 euros for a full price ticket).
Gradual return of the Chinese public
If the Palace of Versailles with its estate also experienced a “temporary decline” of his attendance during the Games, he reached at the end of the year “figures slightly higher than those of 2023 and an increase of 2% compared to 2019, the level before the Covid-19 crisis”daytime and nighttime shows included, said the establishment in a press release.
Americans remain the first foreign visitors represented with 15% of entries, down slightly compared to 2023 (18%), and Chinese visitors are gradually returning (6% in 2024 compared to 4% in 2023) after a prolonged post-Covid absence. (13% in 2019), he said.
Other museums popular with tourists: Orsay and the Orangerie welcomed 4.9 million visitors in 2024, compared to 5.07 million the previous year, according to the public establishment at their head.
Overall attendance “only fell by 3% compared to 2023, a year of record attendance. It is up more than 15% compared to 2022”he added.
“Summer attendance was down during the JOP (-26% at the Musée d’Orsay compared to 2023, -22% at the Musée de l’Orangerie)”specified the establishment, noting however that “the audience welcomed (…) during this period was younger than usual”.
Major exhibitions
The Cour Carrée of the Louvre, in Paris on December 13, 2024 / Xavier GALIANA / AFP/Archives
2024 was notably “marked by the success of temporary exhibitions”especially “Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise. The last few months »with 794,000 visitors, i.e. the “best exhibition attendance since the museum opened”.
For its part, the Center Pompidou, which must close its doors to the public in September 2025 for at least five years of asbestos removal and renovation work, was pleased to have recorded “a 22% increase in attendance compared to 2023 with 3.2 million visitors”.
If the large museum of modern art also experienced a reduction in visits in July and August, the very general public programming, with a Brancusi retrospective and the exhibitions “Surrealism” or “Comics on all levels”attracted a number of visitors, including “a million” for the latter between May and November, he told AFP.
The Center Pompidou, also called Beaubourg and inaugurated in 1977, must close gradually between March and September, leaving its collection and its programming to circulate in other cultural institutions, in France and around the world, during its closure.
