Many museums charge admission fee while others are free. Do the advantage of charging people to visit a museum outweigh the disadvantage?

Nowadays, many

museums

decide to place an entrance

fee

but the rest insist on being a free visit. Charging

visitors

has the advantage of providing the

museum

with more budget that will allow them to prepare high-quality shows and services for the customers.

However

, fewer

people

would think of visiting those

museums

in their leisure time. I personally think it is not worth risking the

popularity

of

museums

in favour of receiving more

money

and levelling up the services. On the bright side, the extra

money

the

visitors

pay would be returned to them in the shape of more preparations, drinks and snacks, and a cleaner environment.

Furthermore

,

this

better quality

service

leads to more

visitors

and more chances of bringing

people

to the

museums

which is the ultimate goal of these organizations.

For example

last

year, the National

Museum

of Agriculture in Iran suddenly decided to put a charge for admission. Surprisingly,

this

led to more

people

wanting to experience their shows and increased the attention agriculture was receiving in Iran.

Hence

, the decision to charge

people

per visit, could ,in fact, result in the growth of

museums

'

popularity

.

However

, it will reduce the chance of random folk visiting the

museum

when they are bored. Indeed, a small

fee

would not prevent too many

people

from visiting.

On the other hand

, the fact that a

service

is not free, even though the

fee

is small, will induce negative thoughts in the minds of some

people

and

thus

, reduce their

popularity

in the end. One instance is when a

museum

in one of the lower-privileged neighbourhoods changed its business plan to have an admission

fee

. The

people

who were used to spending their afternoons in that

museum

and having fun

while

learning were outraged and started protesting.

Moreover

,

this

led to a plummet in the

popularity

of

museums

.

Hence

, without considering the side effects

this

decision has,

museums

might risk their

popularity

.

To conclude

,

museums

face the question of whether to put an admission

fee

on their

service

or not. Even though they could use

this

extra

money

to upgrade their quality of

service

and

also

satisfy their customers, they risk losing their more frequent

visitors

and indeed, might be damaging their own reputation. In my opinion,

museums

should ask their funders for more

money

and not turn their back on their usual

visitors

but in the end, it is up to them to decide.