A tourist tax is a nice idea, but it is not the answer

In January, the Musée du Louvre in Paris raised its entry charge for non-EU visitors to €32 — €10 more than EU citizens pay. Athena can understand why this has revived the arguments about entry fees for national museums in Britain. It seems anomalous that a French visitor wanting to study the friezes from our sanctuary on the Parthenon, now in the British Museum in London, is charged nothing, whereas a British visitor to the French capital has to pay the equivalent of nearly £28 to admire our handmaiden Athena Nike in the form of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

Yet, whether the idea is to charge an entry fee for all museum visitors, or to confine charges to foreigners, there is formidable opposition to it. All political parties that have pronounced on the matter are in favour of free entry and they are backed by most museum directors. When asked by The Financial Times if she supported introducing entry fees for foreigners, Maria Balshaw, the outgoing director of Tate, was forthright: ‘What does it say to people from the rest of the world if we say: “We’ve got your stuff, but we’re going to charge you to come in”? I don’t like that idea.’

One much-mooted alternative is to supplement the funding of national museums by a tourist tax on hotels and other overnight accommodation. Both Balshaw and Sir Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A Museum, are in favour of an idea that also received backing in the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s autumn statement last year. This proposes giving the mayors of Strategic Authorities in England the power to raise revenue locally through a new visitor levy; the consultation about the proposal, by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (not, it might be noted, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport), concluded in February.

According to one analysis this year, by Central London Forward, a partnership of 12 central London local authorities that supports sustainable growth, a charge of 3% on the cost of overnight accommodation would raise at least £350 million a year in London alone. There are difficulties for anyone who thinks this is going to make a substantial difference to the funding of our national museums. The Mayor of London is responsible for 32 boroughs, as well as the City of London. Assuming an equal division of the cake, each one would be entitled to an allocation of £10.6 million.

Even if Balshaw’s and Sir Tristram’s insistence that 80% should be ring-fenced for cultural spending were to be observed — and there is little chance that it will — this isn’t much. The projected deficit for the National Gallery alone in 2025–26 is £8.2 million and there are 12 national museums or museum groups (such as Tate) in London. A tourist tax is a welcome idea, but any hope that it’s the answer to the entry-fees conundrum is misplaced.