The Museum Documentation Centre (MDC) has published on its website that Croatian museums recorded more than 5.2 million visitors last year, the most visited being the Archaeological Museum of Istria with 575,294 visitors.

Of the 160 museums from the Register of Public and Private Museums, 134 took part in the survey conducted by the MDC, together with 12 more museums from the Register of Museums, Galleries and Collections in Croatia

Data show that out of 5,235,765 visitors, which was 211,116 fewer than in 2018, 29.6% of them visited state museums.

After the Archaeological Museum of Istria, the most visited was the Split City Museum with 389,814 visitors, while the Klovicevi Dvori Gallery was third with 353,262 visitors, mostly because is situated in Zagreb’s Upper Town where many events took place.

According to the analysis done by MDC director Maja Kocijan, museums boasting Croatia’s best-known ancient monuments traditionally attract the largest number of visitors.

Permanent collections saw the biggest increase in the number of visits, by 200,000 compared with 2018, to which contributed an increase of 160,000 in the number of foreign tourists.

Temporary exhibitions saw the biggest decline, from 1,193,435 to 752,002 visitors.

What is most concerning, however, is the continuous decrease in the number of people taking part in educational programmes, which was 264,739 in 2016, but then dropped by 51.5% in just three years, Kocijan said, adding that the number of children and youth in museums is also continuing to slightly decrease.

Museum Night and International Museum Day saw a decline in the number of visitors in 2019 – Museum Night from 216,000 in 2018 to 169,314 in 2019, and International Museum Day from 16,771 in 2018 to last year’s 15,940.

“Visitor statistics is a mirror of our attitude towards those we work for, but also, on the one hand, a very accurate basis for reflecting on the institutions’ priorities, and on the other hand a solid basis for talks with founders,” Kocijan underscored.