Summer visits to DCMS museums and galleries down year-on-year

There were almost 12 million visits to museums and galleries sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) between July and September this year, according to the latest figures released by the department.

DCMS’s visitor figures for the museums and galleries it sponsors registered 11,959,172 visits in the third quarter of this year. The figure is an almost 10% increase in the number of visits during the previous three months and the highest visitor numbers in any quarter of 2024 so far.

However, it is 4% lower than the visits recorded in the same period in 2023 – the quarter with the highest number of visitors post-pandemic – and is 14% lower than the number of visits registered between July and September 2019.

“Since 2021, overall museum visitor numbers have generally been rising,” a statement from DCMS said.

“Museum visitor numbers are impacted by a number of factors, and we do not have enough data yet to infer whether this is a beginning of a new trend. This varies substantially by museum.”

DCMS’s records indicate there were 32.8 million visits to its sponsored museums and art galleries in the first nine months of 2024.

The overall upward trend witnessed in 2024 suggests the total number of visits this year is likely to surpass 2023 levels, which saw a total 41.2 million visits for the highest annual figure in four years.

In 2019, the last year unaffected by the pandemic, there were 50.4 million visits to DCMS-sponsored museums and art galleries.

The latest release of visitor figures follows the publication of DCMS’s annual report for 2023/24, which warned some of the public bodies it sponsors could struggle to continue to operate due to worsening finances.

Tate visitor figures

Among the institutions in question is the Tate group, which posted an £8.7 million deficit in the financial year 2022/23.

DCMS’s visitor statistics show the Tate group – consisting of Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives – received over 1.6 million visits in the third quarter of this year.

The figure is 0.6% lower than the number registered in the second quarter of this year but almost 14% higher than the first quarter of 2024.

Tate group received almost 4.8 million visits combined across the first nine months of 2024, compared to almost 5 million across the first three quarters of last year. 

DCMS’s statistics note that Tate Liverpool has been closed for major renovation works since October 2023. The venue is temporarily open at RIBA North, a smaller space than its home at Royal Albert Dock, which is due to reopen next year.