Estonians have been able to purchase the Museum Card for two years. Initially, the card cost €59; it currently costs €65. Starting July 1 this year, the price will rise to €75, marking an increase of nearly 27 percent.

According to Anu Viltrop, director of the Museum Card program, the card's price is directly tied to museum ticket prices. Viltrop explained that since the second quarter of 2023, ticket prices have gone up by about 20 percent, and a 2-percent hike in the value-added tax will be added in July. "The price increase helps ensure that museums continue receiving appropriate payouts from the Museum Card," Viltrop noted.

Viltrop said that revenue from Museum Card sales is distributed among participating museums based on a formula that considers the total sales revenue of the card, the proportion of visits to each museum during a given period, the full ticket price of each museum and the weighted average ticket price across all participating venues.

She added that the Museum Card program has aimed to keep the reimbursement to museums at around 50 percent of a full-price ticket.

Kadi Polli, director of the KUMU Art Museum, said the price hike is justified. "Individual museum tickets are inevitably more expensive, so even with the price increase, the card remains an affordable and convenient option for visitors," Polli said.

Rita Valge, director of the Estonian Road Museum, noted that while the price increase could potentially discourage some people from purchasing the card, it is still reasonable from the museums' perspective.

"For museums that receive a high number of visits through the Museum Card, the price increase offers some assurance that their own revenue won't drop significantly," Valge said. "Otherwise, joining the Museum Card program might actually become disadvantageous for some museums," she added.

According to Viltrop, the Museum Card currently has about 20,000 users. "We're especially pleased to see that the share of people renewing their cards has grown rapidly — this shows that the card has been embraced and is meeting users' needs," she said.

Viltrop said that Estonians have welcomed the Museum Card and use it an average of 10 to 13 times per year. Leaders at both the KUMU Art Museum and the Estonian Road Museum confirmed that many of their visitors come with the card. Polli noted that a large share of local visitors to KUMU use the Museum Card.

Polli said that while the card does have a positive impact on visitor numbers, it doesn't bring significant financial benefit to museums. "Museums actually lose money on each visitor who uses the Museum Card, since we don't receive the full ticket price from them," she explained. "The card primarily provides value by making museums more accessible to people," Polli added.

The Museum Card offers unlimited entry for a year to more than 130 museums across Estonia. Viltrop noted that new participants this year include the Energy Discovery Center and Planetarium, the Padise Monastery Visitor Center, the Tartu Art House and the Nõmme Museum.

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