England’s Museums Stay Free, Forever
The government has ruled out charging overseas visitors at England's national museums. Inbound leaders now want the 28 October Budget to match it on tax-free shopping.
The cheapest line on any London itinerary stays free. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has ruled out admission charges for overseas visitors at England’s national museums and galleries, ending a year of uncertainty over whether the British Museum, National Gallery and others would start charging tourists. “That’s why they must be free, forever, for everyone to access,” she said on 28 September, at an Art Fund and Cultural Policy Unit event at Tate Liverpool during Labour’s party conference. For anyone selling London to overseas clients, the risk of a new per-head cost on every museum day has gone.
What was on the table
The idea came from Labour peer Margaret Hodge’s independent review of Arts Council England, which recommended charging overseas visitors to shore up museum finances. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport accepted the recommendation and said it would explore selective charging, according to the Museums Association. Many in the sector objected that it would be hard to run, could discriminate between visitors and might not raise enough to cover its costs.
The decision covers the 15 DCMS-sponsored museums, including the British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Science Museum Group, Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museums, Royal Museums Greenwich, National Museums Liverpool and the Wallace Collection. The commitment is to free entry to permanent collections; paid special exhibitions are a separate matter.
The scale is large. Visits to those museums reached 44.67 million in 2025/26, up 96% since 1999/2000. The National Audit Office counted 19.4 million overseas visits in 2024/25. Universal free entry in England began on 1 December 2001, so the policy turns 25 this year.
The next test: the Budget
The museums decision removes one cost from a UK trip, but the bigger levers sit with the Treasury. HM Treasury has set the Budget for 28 October, and inbound and outbound trade bodies, among them UKinbound, ABTA and the Advantage Travel Partnership, will be reading it for the lines that change what a trip to or from the UK costs: tax-free shopping for international visitors, any overnight visitor levy in England, and Air Passenger Duty.
For advisors
- Inbound and FIT itineraries: keep national museums as zero-cost anchors in London, Liverpool and Greenwich, and put the client’s spend into ticketed exhibitions and guided or private experiences where the museum offers them.
- Client reassurance: overseas clients who read about the charging proposal can be told it has been dropped for England’s national collections.
- Watch 28 October: tax-free shopping, an English visitor levy and APD are the Budget lines that would change the cost of a UK trip, inbound or outbound.
Sources
Jeff Cameron is a chief operating officer who writes about the business of travel: operations, pricing, loyalty and the decisions behind the trips, seen through an executive lens.