Museum Pass enjoys a strong 2021 despite ongoing challenges

The Museum Pass, the subscription to visit more than 200 Belgian museums, was used about 500,000 times in 2021 and generated nearly €2.5 million in revenue, the cooperative society museumPASSmusées has announced.

The figures for visits show an increase of 60% compared to 2020, while revenues increased on that year by 65%. Nearly 90,000 subscriptions were sold in 2021, more than 50% more than in 2020.

The growth of the pass can also be seen in the number of museums that take part in the initiative. In 2021, 26 new museums joined, including the Toy Museum, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, and the Tournai Archaeology Museum, bringing the number of partner museums to 211.

"These figures prove that we are succeeding in our mission: to attract more and more people to museums and we will continue to do so,” said museumPASSmusées director Erika T'Jaeckx. “In 2022, we still have many new museums to add."

After a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and two mandatory closures, the museum sector cautiously made progress in 2021, the company points out. The museums were able to remain open all year round, thanks in particular to a set of security measures.

The museum pass was launched in 2018. For a price of €59 per year, it provides free access to the permanent collections of the participating Belgian museums and free or reduced entry to their temporary exhibitions.

The organisation is currently working on a digital version of the museum pass that will be released in the spring.