Even deprived of their Asian visitors due to Covid, the major Parisian museums have filled up. Their attendance is up sharply in 2022 and tends to return to its 2019 levels, according to the figures published on Thursday.
Foreign tourists, especially Americans, have returned to the cultural highlights of the capital, which has seen the major exhibitions (Kokoschka, Munch, Frida Kahlo, etc.) acclaimed and the strong return of the local public to the museums of the City of Paris. .
170% more at the Louvre
With 7.8 million visitors, the Louvre, the largest museum in the world, recorded “a 170% increase compared to 2021 thanks to the return of foreign visitors, but 19% less than in 2019 (9.6 million),” the museum said.
The Chinese public (8% in 2019) remained “virtually absent”. If this absence was “compensated by an increase in European visitors (…), the museum nevertheless suffered from the mobility restrictions still in force in certain geographical areas of the world during the first three months of the year”, a-t-t -he adds.
3.2 million visitors to Orsay
The return of foreign visitors (77% of attendance in 2022) was also felt at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, one of the most visited sites in France, which totals 6.9 million visitors (visits to the castle and shows) in 2022, i.e. 16% less than in 2019.
A beacon of Impressionism, the Public Establishment of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie-Valéry Giscard d’Estaing welcomed 4.2 million visitors, compared to 1.4 million in 2021, and 4.6 in 2019. Orsay alone totaled 3.2 million visitors, 10% lower than 2019, a record year for attendance with 3.6 million visitors.
Beaubourg close to 2019
With more than 3 million visitors in 2022, the Center Pompidou, which mainly welcomes a Parisian or Ile-de-France audience, doubles its attendance compared to 2021 (1.5 million), finding “a level close to that of 2019”, according to the museum.
Its permanent collections of modern and contemporary art even record more visitors than in 2019 (1.5 million against 1.4), with in parallel a program that has revived the tradition of major thematic and multidisciplinary exhibitions that have made it unique. .