The Dutch museum association has called on the government to provide more financial support because of the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The lack of tourists and other restrictions mean that the current volume of visitors is not enough to pay for maintaining museums and their collections, let alone put on special exhibitions to draw in the public, the association says.

‘Government investment over the next few years is extremely necessary,’ the association said.

In June, users of the discount Museumkaart made some 411,000 visits to museum but this is still down one third on the same period in 2019.

Fewer people are also buying single tickets and the number of foreign visitors, who account for around one third of the 33 million museum visits a year, is also well down, the association said.

Most museums have opted to reduce visitor numbers rather than work with the test for entry system, which allows more people to visit without social distancing.

The association said before ‘test for entry’ was made possible that there was little support for the system among both museums and visitors.