This short article about Swedish museum fees is so revealing that I post it here without introduction other than to say it has direct analogies to the issues associated with National Park Service entrance fees. I have place the symbol "••" next to each point of special importance.  -Scott

Sweden: Entry fees deter visitors
By Clemens Bomsdorf - 25 April 2007

STOCKHOLM. Visitor numbers to Swedish museums have declined dramatically since the re-introduction of entrance fees •• in January this year. A survey by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter compared visitor figures for 15 museums in January 2007 with the same month in 2006. This revealed a decrease of nearly 90,000 visitors to 183,000, from 272,300 the previous year—a substantial drop of 33%.

The greatest decrease was at the Swedish Museum of Architecture which suffered an 83% decline ••. The museum is adjacent to the Moderna Museet, which has also seen a 35% fall in visitors.

The new centre-right coalition government ••, which came to power in September 2006, removed the legal requirement for museums to retain free entry •• but simultaneously cut their subsidy by up to a quarter ••, effectively leaving institutions with no option •• but to reintroduce charges ••. At museums which have enforced admission fees, free entry is now restricted to those aged 19 or under ••.

“Free entry to museums made it harder for other institutions, which still charged a fee, to attract visitors ••. That is not fair,” Carl Johan Swanson, political advisor at the ministry of culture, told The Art Newspaper. He added that museums “can now decide for themselves, what they prioritise—free entry, education or restoration” ••.
 

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