The presence of important art museums in a country or city is a major tourism drawcard, and those cities with a number of galleries or museums can offer packages to tourists seeking the full cultural experience. 

It’s not just foreign tourists and collectors who bring in the revenues for cities – locals can also enjoy these exhibitions. Indeed, the presence of high quality galleries and museums can be an attraction for those wishing to live in a city or region – whether they’re students, professionals or retirees. 

It’s not just the traditional western countries and cities that draw visitors to their galleries and museums. Three of the top 10 most popular exhibitions in 2019 were in Tokyo, while the National Museum of China (Beijing) was the second most visited museum after the Louvre with 7.3 million visitors in 2019.

Museums in the UK also did well in 2019, with three of the most visited museums in the world, namely The Tate Modern, the National Gallery and the British Museum. This may have been the result of Brexit. The weaker pound would have made London and its cultural locations more affordable for many prospective visitors.

However, currency depreciation can be a double-edged sword. A weaker pound may help boost sales and attract tourists, but these benefits could dissipate with time if the best works are sold off to buyers from countries with stronger currencies.

Top-performing art exhibitions

Beyond Paris, London, Rome and New York, a number of other cities enjoyed large visitor numbers for specific exhibitions in 2019, as the tables below show.

The Bilbao effect - investing in art museums

Cities can also position themselves as fine art hubs by investing in art museums. One good  example is Bilbao in Spain’s Basque Country. Once the centre of the country’s steel industry, Bilbao has managed to reposition itself as an art tourism hub, thanks to the ambitious construction of the Guggenheim Bilbao (pictured below) that was inaugurated in 1997.

A collaboration between the Basque government and the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation, the Guggenheim Bilbao was designed by renowned Canadian- American architect Frank Gehry at a cost of US$89m (mostly paid for by Basque taxpayers).

The museum, with its striking exterior and permanent external pieces by Jeff Koons, has given rise to the term the “Bilbao effect” whereby a museum can transform a city.

With over 22 million visitors since its opening in 1997 (two thirds of who came from abroad), the museum has certainly had a positive impact on Bilbao, more than paying off the cost to build it through resulting economic activity, estimated at €400 million per year.

Arguably though, the museum is more of an attraction as an architectural feature – much like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Sydney Opera House – than simply as a receptacle of great art.

In a similar vein, Cape Town opened the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) at the V&A Waterfront (pictured above) in 2017. The museum welcomed 350 000 in its inaugural year.

The Zeitz MOCAA is the first major museum dedicated to contemporary art on the African continent.

The Zeitz MOCAA was awarded the overall Cultural Destination of the Year at the Leading Cultural Destinations Awards in 2018. Dubbed the "Oscars of the museum world", the Awards recognise the world’s best cultural destinations. It is fast becoming one of Cape Town's biggest tourist money spinners, with Tripadvisor ranking the museum 8th in the list of the city's top attractions in 2020.