Swiss museums recover after pandemic challenges

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.

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.