“In an ideal world, there would be no restrictions on the public visiting museums. Any such visit would be spontaneous, natural and unhindered,” commented Guillaume Kentz in the New York Times. For 9 years, curator of the department of Spanish and Latin American art in Louvre – the current director of the Museum and Library of the Hispanic Society in New York – reacted this way when he learned about the restrictions on visitors that will be introduced in the largest museum in France and, by far, one of the most popular in the world.

But we don’t live in an ideal world. On the contrary, as anyone who has been involved in cultural tourism in recent years can see, the endless queues at the entrance, the tightness inside the halls and the limited visibility even in front of the most famous museum exhibits were unpleasant conditions for the public. Of course, at least in France, where the statistics come from (Le Monde newspaper), visits to monuments and museums recovered significantly in 2022, but did not reach pre-Covid-19 levels. Last year, the Palace of Versailles was visited by 6.9 million people, three times more than in 2021, but 16% less than in 2019. At the Louvre, which saw 7.8 million visitors in 2022, thanks largely to a massive influx of American tourists, attendance has remained stagnant. 19% less than in 2019. Impressively, the Louvre used to be able to sell up to 45,000 tickets a day on its busiest days.

But now it stops. Its director Laurence de Carr announced that the maximum number of visitors per day was limited to 30,000. With 80% of tickets currently issued through a booking service, the new policy is expected to stabilize attendance at between 7.5 and 8 million visitors by 2023, bringing it back to 15-year-old levels.

De Carré, who took office in 2021, then expressed a desire to extend the Louvre’s opening hours until 7 p.m. to also attract more French visitors. Of course, the implementation of this measure required planning and discussion with trade unions, as she mentioned. However, there is a prospect in 2023 to replenish the staff of the museum, numbering several thousand people, with 90 new employees.

In a recent press statement, de Carré said she decided to make changes “to make the visit enjoyable, especially for first-time visitors,” who make up 60% of visitors. seen from the data. The Louvre, which welcomed about 5 million people in the late 1990s, has struggled for years to optimize its attendance.