Te Papa to introduce $35 fee for international visitors
Friday, 16 August 2024
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International visitors will pay $35 to enter and explore Te Papa from mid September, The Post can reveal, as the national museum battles rising costs including power, insurance and staff wages.
A ticketing desk and queues of bollards will be set up in the atrium of the first floor of the museum to guide international visitors after being welcomed by visitor hosts at the doors. Those 16 and over will be charged from September 17.
Entry will remain free for all New Zealanders, including those who consider themselves to normally live in New Zealand, regardless of their visa or residency status, and New Zealanders who live abroad who are visiting home.
The system will work on a high trust, self reporting model in which proof of nationality will not be required.
The decision is expected to raise several millions of dollars a year.
In the last financial year 1.2 million people visited Te Papa, about half of those were from overseas. It’s the most visited art gallery in New Zealand, and is regularly billed as a top tourist experience. TripAdvisor listed it as the number one attraction in the country ‒ and the South Pacific ‒ in its travellers’ choice awards this year.
Entry has been free for everyone since Te Papa opened in Wellington in 1998, however the museum does occasionally host short-term blockbuster exhibitions and events that guests must buy tickets for.
The museum receives $44 million a year from the Government, but says it must raise an additional $30m annually to remain sustainable. The extra money presently comes from a mix of philanthropy and donations, partnerships, and commercial activities such as leasing out its venue spaces for conferences and other events; cafes; retail stores and its car park.
Te Papa took a significant commercial revenue hit due to Covid-19.
In an interview, the museum’s co-leaders said the decision was made after extensive consultation over several months with the tourism sector and with visitors, who were asked what they’d be willing to pay. The $35 entry fee was benchmarked against other experiences in New Zealand and abroad.
Auckland Museum, for example, charges international visitors $32, while the Waitangi Treaty Grounds is $60.
Courtney Johnston, Te Papa’s chief executive, said the new revenue would help ensure New Zealanders retain the same world class access to its more than two million collection items.
“I’m sure everyone who’s opened an insurance bill or electricity bill recently has taken a bit of a breath ‒ no different from us. So this is all about us supporting ourselves, supporting New Zealanders, welcoming in our visitors, and keeping it awesome,” Johnston said.
“It’s a balance between keeping that great service and that great access, and then looking for ways to innovate.”
International visitors were often surprised Te Papa was free, she added.
Proving nationality would be a burden for those who visit the museum the most often, Johnston said, which was why it decided to roll the fee out on the basis of self reporting.
The museum’s other co-leader and kaihautū, Dr Arapata Hakiwai, was confident visitor numbers would not plummet.
“Access to the collections, access to the taonga … is a critical dimension. That all comes at a cost. We just want to make sure that with the rising cost pressures, we can ensure that we could continue to reinvest and work towards telling our stories, looking after our treasures and having access to them,” Hakiwai said.
Last year The Post revealed the museum reduced its insurance premiums in a bid to cut costs, taking building damage cover for a 1-in-250 year event instead of the previous 1-in-1000 year event.
According to its own research, 98% of international visitors are satisfied with their experience there ‒ 77% of those people rate Te Papa a 9 or 10 out of 10.
International visitors spend an average of two hours at the museum, which employs more than 600 staff from scientists to pastry chefs.