{"id":786470,"date":"2026-09-29T15:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786470\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T15:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:14:15","slug":"englands-national-museums-to-remain-free-to-overseas-visitors-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786470\/","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s national museums to remain free to overseas visitors | Museums"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overseas visitors will continue to enjoy free entry to England\u2019s national museums after ministers decided against charging them after months of discussions between the government, museums, the tourism sector and local leaders.<\/p>\n

Ministers said in March that \u201ccharging international visitors at national museums could provide significant benefits\u201d as they promised to explore options including examining whether making overseas tourists pay could boost the institutions\u2019 finances.<\/p>\n

They were responding to an independent review published in December by former Labour minister Margaret Hodge<\/a>, who said a charging model for international tourists \u201cwould align the UK with other countries, such as New Zealand and Singapore, that charge an entry fee to international visitors while retaining free entry for citizens and residents\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed on Tuesday that free admission would remain in place for everyone.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cThe government believes that charging overseas visitors could deter domestic visitors and that the impacts and benefits of charging would not be felt equally across the sector and therefore will not introduce charges for overseas visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Universal free admission to museums was introduced by Tony Blair\u2019s Labour government in 2001.<\/p>\n

National museums contribute more than \u00a31bn a year to the economy and attract visitors from around the world, the DCMS said, with the Natural History Museum and the British Museum drawing 7.1 million and 6.4 million visitors respectively in 2025.<\/p>\n

The government highlighted \u00a3760m in funding for museums through its \u00a31.5bn Arts Everywhere Fund, as well as \u00a3600m in infrastructure funding for national museums.<\/p>\n

It said the \u00a313.6m museum transformation programme would help organisations move towards more sustainable business models, while ministers would work with Arts Council England<\/a> and the sector on a long-term strategic plan for museums, with further details to be announced.<\/p>\n

London\u2019s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said: \u201cIt\u2019s great news that the government has committed to continuing to keep museums free for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cLondon\u2019s museums and galleries are the envy of the world, drawing millions from across the globe and an embodiment of our belief that access to culture is a right, not a privilege.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy keeping these important venues open to all, we will continue to educate and entertain generations to come and show why we are the culture capital of the world, as we build a fairer, more inclusive London for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overseas visitors will continue to enjoy free entry to England\u2019s national museums after ministers decided against charging them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-786470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}