Charging tourists may make an exhibition of ourselves

Exempting locals from fees to museums is a complicated step – but going contactless could work

- Simon Calder

Each day from Monday to Thursday between 4 and 6pm, the Royal Palace in Madrid sees a surge in visitors. Between those hours, EU citizens – as well as Latin Americans – are admitted free. The rest of us must pay €18 (£16).

This is just one of countless examples of price discrimination for tourist attractions around the world: how much you pay depends on where you live. From 14 January, it will cost non-EU citizens €10 more to visit the Louvre.

Limited examples exist in the UK. For example, residents of York get free admission to the Minster year-round, while the rest of us pay £20. Yet many of the great British museums (including, of course, the British Museum) are free to all comers - courtesy of the taxpayer.

Reader Wayne Mills asks: “In these times of austerity, shouldn’t tourists to the UK also have to pay a fee for entry to museums and other attractions which are currently free?”

When I posed that question in Friday’s newsletter, the response was swift and overwhelmingly in agreement with the notion.