Museum visitors pass 1.5m for first time post-Covid

Big Pit National Coal Museum saw its visitor numbers return to just over 90% of pre-pandemic levels

Visitor numbers to Wales' national museums have jumped by 20% over the last year.

Attendances have increased across the seven sites - passing the 1.5m mark again for the first time since Covid.

But figures are still not back to the pre-pandemic levels, when they were close to 1.9m.

Museum Wales said: "Despite having to operate in an increasingly challenging environment, we’re pleased that visitors continue to return and engage with our diverse collections, quality programmes and services."

What do the figures show?

• Swansea's National Waterfront Museum saw the biggest rise in visitors in 2023-24: Up 30% to 236,959 after being hit hard after Covid restrictions

• St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff remains the biggest attraction, hitting 611,695 visitors, a 21% rise

• National Museum Cardiff had a 20% increase, but visitor numbers were still only around three quarters of what they were before the pandemic.

• The National Wool Museum near Llandysul, Carmarthenshire, saw the smallest rise in visitors, up 3%

• Big Pit National Coal Museum near Pontypool, Torfaen, bounced back closest to its pre-Covid figures, with 118,368 visitors

• Across all sites, the summer of 2023 saw visitor numbers up 30% on the previous main holiday season

The improving picture follows a difficult year.

Museum Wales - which has not charged for admission across its sites since 2002 - faces a £3m reduction in grant funding (a 10.5% cut) in the current year, adding to a budget deficit of £1.5m.

Altogether, 140 staff have now agreed voluntary redundancy.

Darren Williams, national officer for the PCS Wales union, said: "While compulsory redundancies have been avoided, the loss of so many staff in a short time has inevitably put significant pressure on service delivery and increased the workloads of the staff who remain."

He said the loss of valuable skills and experience could not easily be replaced while the union was in talks about changes to some contractual terms - particularly the working hours - of front-of-house staff.

The museum has also been facing a £90m maintenance backlog across Wales, with £25m of work needed at National Museum Cardiff, including repairing leaking roofs.

The museum said it had developed a 10-year strategy in 2020 in response to challenges from the pandemic and it was "imperative" that it continued to tackle the current financial challenges head on.

Visitor numbers were back to 86% of pre-pandemic levels.

It said the impact of Covid, also experienced by other visitor attractions, had been further compounded by additional global economic challenges.

Meanwhile, Wednesday also marks the deadline for a consultation on the Welsh government's culture strategy, for the next seven years, aimed at increasing participation in the arts, heritage and museums.

Gwennan Davies and Joseph Leeds, two visitors to the National Museum in Cardiff

'Definitely one of the best ones'

Joseph Leeds visiting with his friends, said he often goes to the National Museum Cardiff.

He said you can learn a great deal at the museum in just a few hours and the fact that it’s free is excellent.

“Museums and libraries should always be open and should always be free to access," he said.

"For a Welsh museum, it’s got a fantastic collection of French impressionist paintings. It taught me lots as a child and it continues to teach me lots as an adult.”

Gwennan Davies enjoys viewing the art gallery at the national museum. She said: “I’ve been here hundreds of times. I work in the arts so I tried to get to museums as often as possible."

Visiting from Canada with his daughter, Bob Balneaves said: “We’ve visited different museums across England and Scotland, but this one is definitely one of the best ones.”