This good performance is largely due to a very significant increase in attendance at the Versailles estate. However, other increases are also noted: in Paris, at the museums of the Louvre, Guimet, d'Orsay, Rodin, and the Middle Ages (thermal baths of Cluny) and the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine; elsewhere in Ile-de-France, in addition to Versailles, the castles of Fontainebleau and La Malmaison and the Cité de la Céramique-Sèvres; in other regions, the museums of prehistory (Les Eyzies), Magnin (Dijon) and Chagall (Nice). This increase therefore concerns institutions with an audience of several million visits per year as well as medium- and modest-sized museums.
Free/Paid
Free visits to national museums account for about 35% of the total attendance. The impact of measures exempting the right of access to permanent collections in the national museums of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in favour of 18-25 year-olds living in the EU and teachers (from kindergarten to high school) continues to be felt.
· 18-25 year olds and free
Since its inception, the measure has generated nearly 4.5 million admissions in nine quarters: 1,286,433 for three quarters in 2009, 2,148,867 in full-year 2010, and 1,058,131 admissions in the first two quarters of 2011. In moving years, the number of admissions for Year 1 (April 2009-March 2010) is 1. 767 317, while for Year 2 (April 2010-March 2011) it is 2. 154 056. This increase of 22% on average from one year to the next is to be put in perspective with a decrease of about 2% of the other categories of visits in the permanent collections.
In two years, the attendance rate of young visitors in the permanent collections will have doubled: now it reaches an average of 10.7% in the museums of Ile de France, and 5.3% in museums located in other regions.
· Teachers and the Education Pass
Over nine quarters, the free measure generated a total of 707,565 admissions: 236,723 for three quarters in 2009, 323,892 for the full year 2010, 146,950 for the first two quarters of 2011. Between the first quarter of application of the measure and the last quarter of the nine-quarter sequence, the overall increase was about 25% in the Ile de France region and nearly 50% in the other regions.
Summer attendance in 2011
Summer attendance is estimated at 5 176 463 a 14% increase over 2010. The increase characterizes the Paris museums: in the capital, it is particularly notable for the museums of Music, Decorative Arts, the Middle Ages or the quai Branly; Elsewhere in the Ile-de-France region, it averages 29% and is a feature of the Versailles estate, the Renaissance Museum in Ecouen and Port-Royal-des-Champs. In other regions, it particularly affects the Magnin Museum (Dijon), the Chagall Museum (Nice) and the Picasso Museum (Vallauris) or the Pau Castle. The gloomy weather seems to have benefited the attendance of the establishments by both foreign and national tourists.