The drop of 200,000 visitors compared to 2023 - when it recorded 8.9 million entries - was felt mainly during the summer of 2024, when the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games were held, but the Louvre Museum remains the most visited of the world.
In July and August, which included part of the period in which the Olympic Games took place in Paris, the museum received 1.3 million visitors, a number 14% lower than July-August 2023, according to AFP.
The Louvre had to close on July 25th and 26th, the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
In 2023, this museum space in the Parisian capital had returned to a level of visitors close to pre-covid, when most museums dropped in visitor numbers due to constraints to prevent the spread of the disease throughout the world.
According to official data, in 2024, 77% of visitors to the Louvre came from abroad, including 13% from the United States, with several European countries represented: 5% from Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany, and 4% from Spain.
"Chinese visitors [6% against 2.4% in the previous year] are beginning to register a significant return", highlighted the museum, which a year ago increased the price of a normal ticket to 22 euros. Last year, 28% of visitors were admitted to the Louvre for free.
Other Paris museums popular with tourists - Orsay and the Orangerie - also saw declines, receiving 4.9 million visitors in 2024, compared with 5.07 million the previous year, according to the public institution.
In Spain, in the capital, the Prado Museum surpassed its 2023 record, rising 6.6%, with 3,457,057 visits, while the Reina Sofia Museum registered an increase of 9%, with 1,537,105 visitors, according to data released by EFE agency.
Although these main art museums received more visitors in 2024 than in the previous year, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, also in Madrid, received 951,821 people to visit its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, 6% less than in 2023.
Globally, 57.6% of visits came from Spain, 41.1% from Madrid and 16.4% from the rest of Spain, and 42.4% from abroad.
According to the list of the 100 most popular museums in the world, compiled by The Art Newspaper, in 2023 the Louvre stood out from the rest with a difference of two million visitors compared to the Vatican Museums, in second place.
The 'top' 5 of 2023 was completed by museums such as the British, in London, the Metropolitan, in New York, and the Tate Modern.
On the list of the 100 most visited museums in 2023 there was a Portuguese one, Serralves, in Porto, with 1.1 million people, a number that would have been surpassed in 2024, a year that, according to the foundation's estimates, would close with 1.24 million of visitors.