England set to charge foreign tourists for entry to leading museums

Millions of foreign tourists visiting England’s best-known museums will have to pay fees under proposals set out on Thursday by the UK’s culture secretary Lisa Nandy.

The culture department has accepted a proposal by Margaret Hodge, a former Labour MP, that museums and galleries including the British Museum and the National Gallery should consider limiting free entry.

It is not clear what level museums would set for foreign tourists at this early stage in the process.

One figure close to discussions suggested £15 to £20 (€17-€23) could become the norm given that the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art charges $30 (€26), the Louvre up to €32 and Madrid’s Prado €15.

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The Natural History Museum in London became the most popular attraction in the UK in 2025 with 7.1 mllion visitors, a 13 per cent increase on the previous year.

The British Museum was knocked into second place with 6.4 million visitors, followed by the Windsor royal estate with 4.9 million, Tate Modern at 4.5 million and National Gallery with 4.1 million.

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Nandy said that the government wanted to explore “the potential opportunities that charging international visitors at museums could bring”.

However, Hodge’s proposal, made in a recent independent review of Arts Council England, was conditional on the government first rolling out a universal ID scheme, which would make it easier to differentiate domestic and international visitors.

One leader of a big London museum said: “It’s very sensible. The current model doesn’t work because government funding is constantly being squeezed.”

A gallery staff poses with custom haute couture dress, part of an exhibition 'Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art' at Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Britain. The director of the museum said he wasn't attracted to the idea of charging entrance for overseas visitors.

But Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, said his organisation was not “institutionally attracted to” the proposition of charging overseas visitors.

“We think it is far better to use the upcoming overnight hotel levy to secure free entry for entry to our national museums,” he said.

Many UK cities, including London, are planning to introduce visitor levies on overnight stays to improve services. He emphasised that Hodge’s review said digital ID cards, which don’t yet exist, would be a “crucial precondition.”

Overseas visitors make up 43 per cent of those going to major British museums and galleries, accounting for 17 million such trips in the last official statistics for 2023/4, albeit fewer than before the Covid pandemic. The number of domestic visitors to the same sites was 23 million for the same period.

But the overall figure has never recovered from the Covid pandemic, with the total 40.8 million visits in 2023/4 down from a peak of 49.8 million in 2018/19.

Hodge argued in her report that charging overseas visitors would align the UK with other countries such as New Zealand and Singapore. She suggested that children and UK residents could be exempted.

Nandy also announced plans for a new fund for future artists and creatives and said she would consider longer funding rounds for the “national portfolio” of arts organisations, museums and libraries of up to five years.

The culture department said it would work with the museum sector to explore options for the proposed two-tier charging model with an update before Christmas.