Attendance at the Louvre dropped to level of 1986 last year

Attendance at the Louvre has dropped to three times its pre-pandemic coronavirus level, The Art Newspaper wrote on January 5.

Last year, the Louvre Museum received only 2.8 million visitors, less than 30 percent of its record level. Before Covid, visitor numbers reached 10 million. The Louvre had not seen such low numbers since 1986, before the opening of the glass pyramid and the Grand Louvre project, which has steadily increased attendance over the past four decades.

According to official sources, overall attendance at French museums is down 60-70% compared to the pre-Victorian period. The outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus strain has finally dashed hopes that attendance in 2022 could rise to at least 50% of the normal rate.

More than 60% of visitors to the Louvre were French, two-thirds of them from Paris and its environs. Only 6% were from the United States, and the same percentage from Germany. Visitors from Britain accounted for only 2%, and visitors from Asia virtually disappeared. Before the Coronocrisis, Americans accounted for 20% of visitors to the Louvre, followed by Chinese tourists, who accounted for 8% to 10% of entries.