Tourists ‘should fund free museum access’
Rome and New York-style city hotel tax on overseas guests would pay for local culture, says V&A director
CITIES should introduce a “hotel tax” on tourists to keep museums and galleries open for free, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum has argued. Tristram Hunt, who joined the museum last year, said he was “very much in favour” of levying a charge on overseas visitors at hotels and using the money to support local culture.
He pointed out that major cities such as New York and Rome had “tourist taxes” on their hotels, and said implementing a similar system could help struggling local museums “absolutely smashed” by funding cuts.
Speaking at the Royal Academy’s Festival of Ideas, Mr Hunt admitted he had previously got it wrong when he suggested, when a Labour MP in 2011, that it was time to reintroduce charges for national museums. The debate around maintaining free entry for museums and galleries has been going on for decades, with all government-supported arts institutions becoming free in 2001 in an attempt to widen access for all. At that time, the V&A scrapped a £5 charge.
Along with all other leading galleries, it now keeps its permanent collection free for all visitors, while charging for temporary exhibitions and annual blockbusters designed to lure in the crowds.
Asked about his previous support for introducing entry fees, laid out in a newspaper column in 2011, Mr Hunt said he had since revised his views.
“The reason I wrote that was the state of regional, particularly local authority, museums that were subject to council funding,” he said. “We [the V&A] have had it bad, but local authority museums have been absolutely smashed over the last few years.
“But free entry is an important part of public policy now. Four out of five visitors come to London for culture: great. Come and see the museum for free: great. [But] why, when I go to New York or Florence or Rome, do I pay a hotel tax to support culture in that city, and yet all the tourists who come specifically to London to enjoy culture don’t pay a hotel tax?
“So I think the Government should give local authorities the right to levy a hotel tax. The challenge for us would be to say that needs to come to museums like ourselves.
“But I do think a hotel tax that supports cultural infrastructure and maintaining free entry is something I’d be very much in favour of.”
Frances Morris, director of Tate Modern, also rejected introducing entry fees. “Charging is not something that we’re planning for,” she said. “We are not thinking of charging for the national collection. It’s in the public ownership and we think that is incredibly important, that nobody should pay to access their birthright.”
Its latest report for 2017-18 showed that the V&A made £6million from admission and exhibition fees, £3.4million from membership fees and £870,651 from “other trading”. It received £37.8million in grant aid, down from £40.3million the year before.