I have seen articles recently where The Louvre plans to limit the number of daily visitors from 45,000 per day to 30,000 per day. What I don’t understand is how they know how many tickets have been sold given the Museum pass users have entrance access without purchasing tickets from the museum. If anyone knows the process on limiting entry please let me know.
Thanks!
I believe even with the museum pass you need to make a reservation.
It’s easy. Everyone, including those with free entry like museum pass holders, kids etc etc needs to book a time slot.
If they enact that policy which frankly seems stupid to me as the Louvre is not that crowded under present conditions, then of course they will require everyone to have a reservation.
You go to tickets on the Louvre website and choose the option for people with free entry. As a Museum member, that's what I do, too
With the surge in tourism, the Louvre is fairly crowded again. I'm glad to see the new Director taking these measures. I'm sure the employee councils we're in on the decision, too. Before Çovid, one August day I saw tourists climbing on statues for photos, saw food wrappers and half-full drink cups abandoned in a corner, guards totally overwhelmed. The museums were under orders to raise money. Thirty thousand is reasonable, considering that for many people it's a one-time visit and they are going to the same galleries.
If you read the news articles about this topic, you will see that this isn’t a reduction compared to current numbers of visitors. It’s a reduction compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
In 2019 there were days when the museum received up to 45000 visitors, which made for a very crowded atmosphere. Now that visitor numbers are steadily rising, the Louvre has decided that they don’t want to go back to the pre-pandemic days with visitors having to elbow their way in. They have decided to cap the maximum number of visitors at 30000, which sounds like a very sensible decision to me.
I was just there on Saturday and it was a madhouse. We would have tried to avoid Saturday, but they close some galleries on other days so we went on Saturday to see everything. The morning was okay, but the afternoon was miserable. The special exhibition about Uzbekistan was wonderful, but so crowded you could barely move. Around 4 pm I decided I’m never going to the Louvre again. Actually, on future trips I’ll probably reserve two or three mornings (despite the extra cost) and leave by lunchtime rather than devoting a whole day to it.
Part of what makes it so bad is all the people with their cellphones out photographing everything. I wouldn’t be upset if they banned photography. That would certainly help with the crowd control.
I completely support limiting the number of visitors to a venue. As a very organized planner, it won't be often that I won't have a ticket and smaller crowds mean everyone that purchases a ticket can better enjoy their experience. I do hope that they don't let tour companies buy up more tickets than a reasonable share.
I certainly am not against this at all. I am a member, so fortunately it allows me to visit for as long or as little as I want. Lately I just go to directly see what I want and then get out. Gone are the days of just going in to wander around. Museum rage is a real thing!
I think this is a good move, but..... I have another suggestion!
MOVE MONA! Give her a dedicated museum! Let the "selfie crowd" go get their photos. Half of them just wander around afterwards pretending to get their money's worth
I went with my family to the Louvre the day after Christmas and couldn't believe the crowds. Getting in was no problem because we had a reservation. (The ticket line went on forever!) Once we got in though it was mobbed and not really enjoyable at all.
@HK, this is the strategy I've also settled on. 2 mornings - going in about 9-930, stay a couple of hours and then out to the Tuileries for some kind of lunch in the garden. I usually have a couple of floors that I target but almost always wind up at the Vermeers/Rembrandts or the cabinet with the vase of Alienor d'Aquitaine or the surprising (to me) early Impressionist paintings.
I agree with limiting the numbers as well. That summer of 2019 before they started doing timed entries it was pretty awful and I'd hate for it to that level of crowdedness again.
