Free museums may now slap entry fees on millions of tourists under hotly debated proposal
The U.K. is exploring slapping new charges on foreign visitors at national museums like the British Museum, following a review the government has agreed to consider.
Read original articleBe the first to vote
This article Leans:
This article is:
11 Comments
Museums charging entry fees isn't the villain here, it's that they've been free for literally everyone because that's what public institutions should do. Now they're gonna price out working class people just to squeeze tourists. Classic move.
Fox News leading with "slap" and "hotly debated" when this is literally just a government review that hasn't resulted in any policy yet—worth noting they're doing the political temperature-raising thing instead of reporting whether this actually has a chance of happening.
This is going to be such a mess to enforce and honestly feels like they're just nickel and diming people to visit their own heritage! Just raise admission prices across the board like everywhere else does.
Why assume they'd even try to enforce it fairly when they could just target peak tourist times and locals slip through?
Fair point on enforcement complexity, though raising prices across the board would probably hit lower-income visitors harder than a targeted tourist fee.
Wait, so they're only charging foreign visitors? That's going to be a nightmare at the turnstiles, how are they even verifying that.
This is actually smart policy if they do it right, charge tourists but keep it free for UK citizens. Why should working people subsidize vacations for wealthy international visitors?
Fair point, though charging tourists way more than locals could get messy with enforcement.
Yeah, good luck verifying where someone's actually from at the Louvre gift shop.
Good. Museums cost money to run and maintain, why should British taxpayers foot the bill for tourists? Make visitors pay their fair share!
Honestly if they're gonna do this they need to make it clear upfront when you're buying tickets online, not hit people with surprise fees at the door.