Brussels museums welcomed more than five million visitors in 2024

The museums in Belgium’s capital welcomed 5,018,000 visitors in 2024, only slightly less than the record-breaking year before, according to newly released figures from Brussels Museums.

“These good results can largely be attributed to the return of international tourists to Brussels, as reflected in the number of hotel bookings,” Brussels Museums said.

“Established events such as the Nocturnes and Museum Night Fever also contributed significantly to the increase in museum attendance, as did the Brussels Museum Card and Art Nouveau Pass. The widespread communication about surrealism, the theme of the year, also played a role in these positive results.”

Two museums in particular saw record numbers of visitors: the Botanical Garden, just outside Brussels in Meise, with its famous "corpse flower" and the Boghossian Foundation, an Art Deco house that was formerly a private residence before being converted to serve as a cultural centre and exhibition space.

A number of other museums were also noted as having performed very well, including Bozar, the Design Museum Brussels, the Migration Museum and the Erasmus House.

“Others, however, welcomed fewer visitors, due to different factors such as numerous roadworks that disrupted traffic and made access to Brussels more difficult, or gloomy weather that drove the Belgian public to sunnier destinations,” Brussels Museums said.

“Other reasons include the summer Olympic Games, which attracted more tourists to Paris, longer school holidays during the year, which made the French-speaking public travel abroad more frequently, and the end of the Art Nouveau-themed year.”

The four Royal Museums (the Magritte Museum, the Wiertz Museum, the Meunier Museum and the Old Masters Museum) welcomed 705,450 visitors in 2024 – an increase on the previous year.

The buildings of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in and around Rue de la Régence are the subject of a major restoration project expected to take a number of years to complete.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Brussels Museums group, the 25th anniversary of the Nocturnes and the 100th anniversary of Art Deco, resulting in several special exhibitions throughout the year and an extension of the Art Nouveau Pass to emblematic Art Deco venues.

Museum Night Fever will celebrate its 18th edition later this year.