After months of lockdown and coronavirus restrictions, Finland’s museums are hoping for for a visitor boom in July.
There’s already been a rise in the number of people visiting museums using the popular Museum Card, with the number of visits paid for by the card up 20% compared to last year’s figures.
“According to our forecast, there will be at least 250,000 Museum Card visits in July, but even this may turn out to be too cautious an estimate” says the organisation’s Seppo Honkanen.
Summer - with school holidays - is traditionally the busiest time of year for museum visits in Finland. And this year a survey of cardholders found that many people consider museums a good option for visits because the space inside often makes it easier to stick to good social distancing practices. Many museums are putting in extra measures to maintain hygiene and cleaning standards during the epidemic too.
There are more than 300 museums in Finland involved in the Museum Card scheme which lets people get in for an annual fee of €69.
Among the top 12 most popular new attractions for Museum Card holders are the Heureka Science Centre in Vantaa; the Loviisa Maritime Museum; the Archipelago Centre in Korpoström; Mikkeli Photographic Centre and the Kemi Art Museum.
