In 2021, year two of the pandemic, Croatian museums recorded 2,549,841 visitors, a 74% upturn compared to 2020, but still at only 48% of the 5,2 million they had in 2019. The Museum Documentation Center conducted the survey research in January, collecting data from 141 out of 164 museums listed in the Register of public and private museums in the Republic of Croatia, with a response rate of 86%.

Unlike museums in the rest of Europe, Croatian museums were not closed in 2021. During the summer months, tourism began to awaken (in 2021, the arrivals were up 77% from the previous year, according to eVisitor), which drove up the number of museum visitors. Out of 2,5 million visitors in total, almost a quarter is reported by only three museums, which traditionally attract the biggest crowds. The Archaeological Museum of Istria, including its off-site collections in Pula Arena, recorded 313,180 visitors, 91% more than in 2020, which is still 54% of 574,294 visitors the museum had recorded in pre-pandemic 2019. The Museum of the City of Split, which includes the Diocletian's Cellars, attracted 135,891 visitors, a 228% increase from 2020 but only 34% of 389,814 in the pre-pandemic year. Similarly, the Dubrovnik Museums had 111,411 visitors, a 166% increase from 2020, achieving only 37% of attendance recorded in 2019. Even though some museums are still not tracking the number of international tourists (Dubrovnik Museums, Croatian Museum of Tourism), this category of visitors makes up almost a quarter of the total number of visitors in 2021, same as in 2019, which is still at only 42% of the pre-pandemic attendance.

Zagreb museums, closed due to the consequences of the earthquake, are showing the steepest decline since the COVID-19 pandemic deprived them of the visitors they would have attracted through various events. The Mimara Museum, the Croatian Natural History Museum, the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Croatian School Museum were closed and had no visitors. The Croatian History Museum and the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb also had closed their museum buildings due to the earthquake but managed to attract some 1,000 to 1,500 visitors to alternative venues. The Museum of Arts and Crafts, which during 2021 could still use some of its exhibition galleries and open courtyards, recorded 15,182 visitors, or 19% of the pre-pandemic attendance. Klovićevi dvori Gallery, traditionally the most-visited museum, saw only 16% of the 2019 attendance, dropping from 353,262 to 58,056 despite many exhibitions they had opened.

Although the overall attendance rose to 48% from 2019, regarding school visits, there were 115,347 elementary schoolchildren in 2021, which makes only 21% of the pre-pandemic figures (540,973). An illustrative example is the agile Vučedol Culture Museum, which appeals to schoolchildren but last year reported only 8,081 visitors in the elementary and secondary schoolchildren category. In the pre-pandemic years, up to 90,000 pupils used to visit it.

The only category of visitors which showed growth is the number of visitors with family tickets, with 136,212 recorded in 2021, compared to 57,749 in 2020 and 120,726 in 2019.

Although the statistics for 2021 are yet to be released, the first indicators based on the figures published by some of the largest museums in the world show that the Croatian museums did well, considering the reported attendance. The world's most-visited museum, the Paris Louvre, which was breaking all attendance records shortly before the pandemic, in 2021 ended at the level not seen since 1986, falling to 2,8 million visitors or below 30% of the pre-pandemic times when it had reached 10 million.

Other museums in France have not experienced better results—with a decline of around 60 to 70%. Last year the Pompidou Centre fell from 3,5 million visitors in 2018 to 1,5 million. Musée d'Orsay had a 30% increase from 2020, but even that was just a million visitors compared to 3,6 million in the pre-pandemic year. Amsterdam Rijksmuseum fell from 2,7 million in 2019 to 675,000 in 2020, then to 625,000 in 2021. The results are even more devastating in countries where museums were closed longer due to public health safety measures. London museums like Tate Modern, the V&A, or the National Gallery reported only 3 to 7% of their pre-pandemic attendance.

At the beginning of year three of the pandemic, only one thing is certain, and that is that nothing is certain. Despite all kinds of restrictions and the loss of jobs, as in the case of the US and UK museums, at the beginning of 2022, besides creating new digital content and finding ways how to stay relevant in their communities, museums around the world are not giving up on blockbuster exhibitions planning, in search of new and engaging topics to bring back audience to museums. In Croatia, with more than half of the museum holdings kept in Zagreb museums, the top priority in this and in years to come will be how to bring back museums to the audience.

Visitor survey 2021 (pdf)

(Maja Kocijan, published originally in News from the Museum World 160, 8 February 2022; translated by Ivona Marić)