It took a few years, but Met Museum attendance has surpassed pre-2020 levels for domestic visitors. But while New York has enjoyed a tourism revival post-lockdown, the museum’s international guests are still half of 2019 totals.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art had over 5.5 million visitors to its Met Fifth Avenue flagship and Met Cloisters locations for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2024. In 2019, the Met, which was then also operating the Met Breuer, had 7 million visitors.
The total saw visits from New York City locals at 102 percent of 2019 levels, with 3.3 million people, or 60 percent of all guests. Domestic visitors clocked in at 1.3 million people, the same as 2019. Only 16 percent of visitors, or 900,000 people, came from abroad.
Though the international numbers are still not where the museum would want, there was an encouraging figure for BIPOC audiences, which represented 56 percent of domestic visitors—a record high.
“The Met’s mission is to connect all people to creativity, knowledge, ideas, and one another, and we’re honored to be able welcome so many from near and far to the museum,” Met director Max Hollein said in a statement. “The Met is committed to presenting a wide array of exhibitions, collection displays, activities, and events, and we’re thrilled to see our programming resonating so strongly with increasingly diverse audiences.”
The most popular shows for the year were “Van Gogh’s Cypresses” (with 495,000 visitors), “Richard Avedon: Murals” (392,000), “Manet/Degas” (351,000), and “The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey” (334,000). The reopened European paintings galleries, from the years 1300 to 1800, was also a big draw.
The museum also made it easier for locals to pop in for a quick visit: as of January, New Yorkers have been able to reserve pay-what-you-wish tickets using the Met website. That allows them to skip the long lines of tourists at the entrance—and avoid paying the full price for admission, which jumped to $30 from $25 in 2022.
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