The Museum Card's success continued unabated in 2025. The number of cardholders grew to over 1.540.188 on December 31st, the highest number ever. The digital Museum Card was launched in 2025 and is now also available to the public as a mobile app. There are now 500.000 digital Museum Cards, approximately 33% of the total.
Vera Carasso, director of the Museum Association and Museum Card Foundation: "This development makes the card even more user-friendly and further lowers the barrier to museum visits. After all, you always have your phone with you."
The number of Museum Cards increased by 3,2 percent at the end of 2025 compared to the end of 2024. Museum attendance also reached a new record. Cardholders made more than 9.700.00 visits to participating museums in 2025. In 2024, this number was over 9,5 million, and in 2023, over 9,4 million. A Museum Card holder visited a museum an average of 6,46 times per year.
More visits, more income for museums
Research commissioned by the Museum Association in 2023 shows that cardholders visit museums almost three times as often thanks to the card as those without a Museum Card. In addition, Museum Cardholders generate extra spending in museums, hospitality venues, and the museum shop. Moreover, cardholders regularly bring non-cardholders along, which accounts for approximately seven hundred thousand extra visits annually.
Important driver for the museum ecosystem
The positive effects of the Museum Card apply to all types of museums: large and small, throughout the country, and for all types of collections. Museums outside the major cities benefit relatively strongly, as a significant portion of their visits come from Museum Card holders, making the card an even more significant source of revenue.
The card is also popular and has a significant impact among young adults (ages 19–35). In this group, the so-called multiple-visit factor is significantly higher than average, at approximately 3,5.
The Museum Card in brief
The Museum Card is a personal card that gives you access to more than 500 museums in the Netherlands for a year for a single fixed annual fee: €75 for adults and €39 for children up to 18 years old.
The revenue from all Museum Cards sold is distributed among the participating museums, based on visits and admission prices. Due to a principle of solidarity, small museums benefit relatively most from the Museum Card's success.
On January 29, 2025, the board of the Museum Card Foundation set the visitor reimbursement rate for 2024 at 63 percent, after an advance payment of 55 percent was made during the year. This payment percentage is higher than the policy target of 60 percent. This is because cardholders made fewer museum visits on average and visited fewer expensive museums than budgeted. The increase in revenue due to the price increase also played a role.
Organizationally, the Museum Card falls under the auspices of the Museum Association, the trade association for museums in the Netherlands. The Museum Card is therefore truly a card by and for the museums themselves.
Source and more information: www.museumvereniging.nl