New record for Belgium's Museum Pass

Belgium’s largest museum subscription, the Museum Pass, recorded more than one million visits in the past year – from September 2023 to September 2024 – new figures have revealed.

The organisation that offers the card, MuseumPASSmusées, said that this was is a record, in the scheme which was set up in 2018 and has now celebrated its sixth anniversary.

The lucky pass holder making the millionth visit, Jo De Maeyer from Kruibeke, was rewarded at a ceremony at Brussels’ MIMA contemporary and visual arts museum in Molenbeek.

“The pass gives me the freedom to go anywhere but also to look for surprises,” said De Maeyer, who often uses it with his wife and three daughters.

“It removes a lot of obstacles because you quickly visit a museum you would never have gone to otherwise.”

With a €59 annual museum pass, the pass allows users to visit more than 245 Belgian museums and their exhibitions for a year.

For each visit with a museum pass, MuseumPASSmusées donates half of the total price to the museum visited. Museums also receive a commission for each pass sold.

Meanwhile, passholders get more from the card than free visits and free or discounted temporary exhibitions. They also receive discounts on train tickets and in museum shops.

These benefits are bearing fruit. Last year, the 200,000 active pass holders accounted for more than a million visits, 20% more than the previous year, generating €6.8 million for the museum sector.

This year’s major exhibitions have played a major role in its recent success. These include exhibitions dedicated to the Belgian painter James Ensor at Bozar, the Fine Arts and KBR (Royal Library) in Brussels and the renowned French sculpter Auguste Rodin at the renovated Musee des Beaux-Arts in Mons.

The pass is attracting a more diverse range of people too, according to Erika T’Jaeckx, museumPASSmusées director.

"At first, it attracted mainly museum lovers, but we are now seeing other target groups coming to us, such as families and day trippers," she said.

“We would also like to emphasise the great variety of museums we have. Belgium has many different museums: from the Toy Museum [in Mechelen] to the Genever Museum [in Hasselt], there’s something for everyone.”

From 2026, pass holders will also be able to visit two more Brussels museums – KANAL-Centre Pompidou and the newly renovated Musée d’Ixelles.

“We are also negotiating with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences,” T’Jaeckx added. “We want everyone to become a museum lover.”

Museums in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels have joined forces for this project to encourage the “discovery of heritage” and it is “a first in the Belgian cultural landscape,” the museum pass’s website states.

“The pass has the dual aim of raising the institutions’ profile and making the pleasures of culture accessible to as many people as possible.”