Record-breaking Louvre: 10 mln visitors in one year, no museum has ever managed it. And Beyoncé also contributed

2018 was a record year for the Louvre. In fact, the great museum in Paris surpassed the ten-million-visitor-per-year mark, reaching a record 10.2 million visitors who chose to visit the Louvre throughout 2018. Never before has any museum in the world exceeded ten million visitors per year.

The number exceeds by 25 percent the result achieved in 2017, when the Louvre was traversed by 8.1 million visitors, and beats the museum’s record, set in 2012, when there were 9.7 million visitors. The 2018 record is due to the recovery of tourism in Paris after the brief period of contraction due to international terrorism. But it was also achieved thanks to improvements at the museum: “we created a new checkroom, a new ticket office, a new reception desk for groups that allowed us to receive more and better,” explained the museum’s director, Jean-Luc Martinez. In all, the work at the museum cost 60 million euros and was financed mainly through money coming in from the deal that led to the creation of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

And then there is also the fact that 2018 may have benefited from Beyoncé and Jay Z’s video shot among the halls of the Louvre: the clip may have brought in new audiences. Martinez is convinced of this, explaining to the France Info news outlet, “It is clear that 2018 was a significant year for the Louvre’s international reputation. Beyoncé’s video as well as the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi have made people talk a lot about the Louvre everywhere in the world. And so one of the consequences is this spectacular upswing in museum attendance in the year 2018.”

Statistics on the composition of visitors were also released: three-quarters of visitors to the Louvre are foreigners, and of the 25 percent of French people who visited the museum (roughly corresponding to 2 million visitors) 565,000 were students. Among foreigners, the largest audience has been the Americans (1.5 million visitors), followed by the Chinese (one million): “an audience that until five years ago did not even exist,” Martinez points out. And again, the Louvre’s audience is extremely young: 50 percent of visitors are under 30 years old. Finally, the numerous demonstrations of the yellow vests (the museum was closed only on Saturday, December 8) seem to have had no significant impact on museum attendance.

Pictured: the Louvre, Paris

Record-breaking Louvre: 10 mln visitors in one year, no museum has ever managed it. And Beyoncé also contributed

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