Bosses at the National Maritime Museum say they have no plans to charge overseas visitors, even though the government said it would explore introducing admission fees.

More than two million people visit the museum, Cutty Sark, Queen’s House and Royal Observatory each year. Entry to the National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House is free, in line with other major national institutions in England.

On Thursday, the culture secretary Lisa Nandy said the government would look at the idea of reintroducing fees for overseas visitors to help the arts sector raise funds. Admission charges were scrapped in 2001.

The move was recommended in a review of arts policy by Baroness Hodge of Barking, the former Labour MP.

“ The government believes charging international visitors at national museums could provide significant benefits,” the government’s response. “It could underpin our commitment to ensure art and culture is accessible, representative and shared across the country, and support the long-term financial resilience of these organisations.”

But many in the industry are less convinced, and Royal Museums Greenwich told The Greenwich Wire that it was not interested in the idea. “We currently have no plan or ambition to charge overseas visitors to our free sites,” it said.

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association, told the Museums Journal that  enforcing a charge would have significant staffing costs, and said the sector would prefer income from a visitor levy on overnight stays instead.

“Introducing charges for overseas visitors would mean introducing ticketing systems and ID checks that would have ongoing staffing and costs implications,” she said. “A tourism tax with ring-fenced investment back into museums would be a more effective way of channelling additional funding into the sector.”

The Art Fund said that its research had found that 72 per cent of people supported a tourist tax funding museums, while 49 per cent of those struggling to make ends meet did not always carry the ID needed to make such a scheme work.

Councils in London, including Greenwich, also support a visitor levy, which is common in other European cities, although as a means of helping fund their own services. 

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