Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Swiss museums recover after pandemic challenges

Queue outside a museum
Visitors queue outside the Swiss National Museum in Zurich in March 2021 Keystone / Alexandra Wey

Swiss museums came back to life in 2021 after the major waves of Covid-19, but without reaching pre-pandemic levels.

Almost all indicators of museum activity in Switzerland increased last year compared with 2020: the number of admissions (10.3 million) rose by 26%, the number of guided tours (70,000) by 44%, and the number of events (23) by 77%, the Federal Statistical Office said on TuesdayExternal link.

However, the number of admissions remained far below the 14.2 million admissions of pre-pandemic 2019.

Admissions rose particularly sharply in Italian-speaking Switzerland in 2021, which even recorded a better result than in 2019.

More
Glass showcase covered and photos on walls

More

How Covid-19 hit the Swiss culture sector

This content was published on An official information brochure has listed the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Swiss culture sector last year.

Read more: How Covid-19 hit the Swiss culture sector

Figures on museum staff, included for the first time in the survey, reveal the importance of volunteers, who were used by almost two-thirds of museums.

Larger proportion of women

Some 40% of the staff in Swiss museums worked on a voluntary basis, when the survey was carried out in June 2021. In total, there were around 11,400 employees and 7,500 volunteers, the latter mainly in small museums, the statistical office said. Overall, 64% of Swiss museums employ volunteer staff.

The 11,400 employees correspond to 6,000 full-time positions, indicating a high proportion of part-time employees in this area.

Women make up 62% of employees in museums, with 6% of women and 10% of men holding a management position.

More

News

Train entering tunnel

More

Rhaetian Railway celebrates record figures

This content was published on 2023 was a record year for the Rhaetian Railway in several respects. Never before has the narrow-gauge railway in Graubünden, eastern Switzerland, transported so many passengers and cars.

Read more: Rhaetian Railway celebrates record figures

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR