Museum attendance worldwide over the last half century has increased by 500% according to author and museum scholar, Andrew McClellan, from 22 million visitors in 1962 to over 100 million in 2000.

This is one of the great success stories of the last 50 years in terms of cultural outreach to the general public.
Much of this increase can be attributed to the increase in marketing done by museums of all kinds. The museums have been putting together exhibitions that the public is interested in and will visit. Advertising, promotions, tie-ins for these exhibitions have all contributed to an increase in visibility of special programs and exhibitions and this increases the audience for the permanent collections.
In 1998 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston the “Monet in the 20th Century” exhibition alone attracted nearly 566 thousand visitors and in the same year at the Metropolitan Museum in New York “The Private Collection of Edgar Degas” with works by impressionists and post-impressionist brought over 528 thousand visitors into the museum.
In 2007 the exhibition “Terracotta Warriors” brought 850 thousand visitors to the British Museum, the British Museum is now Britain’s most popular tourist destination with over 6 million visitors a year.
It’s not just the art collections that attract visitors. Visit most any museum in the world today and you will find several dining experiences including, typically, a fine dining venue. Art and crafts are often available for sale by independent vendors outside the museum campus and the museum gift store has becme a destination in its own right. Many museums provide musical performances and dance recitals along with the visual art in the galleries. Increasing, as part of their outreach, museums provide art lessons and lectures on art history to the general public. Cities increasing rely on museum attendance as much as on sports competitions and concerts to drive consumers to restaurants and stores in the city. The 21st Century museum is an important element in the revival of the central city as a destination for tourist.
One important capability of is the ability of a museum to bring materials together from all over the world and present exhibitions of themes with tremendous appeal to the public. Instead of traveling to Madrid, Paris, Provence and places as distant from the US as Victoria, Australia to view the works of Amedeo Modigliani, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was able to bring this artist’s work from all over the world and present it to the residents of Los Angeles. It would in fact be unaffordable for any individual to travel to the many diverse museums where this art resides in permanent collections to view these works. A museum can bring them all together in a single place for art lovers.