The popular Museum Pass celebrated its sixth anniversary this year by registering over 1 million visits.
The pass holder who made the millionth visit, Jo De Maeyer from Kruibeke, was honoured on Friday at MIMA in Brussels. "The pass gives me the freedom to step into any museum and seek out surprises," said Jo, who often visits museums with his wife and three daughters. He has renewed his pass every year since its launch in 2018.
The Museum Pass allows entry to 245 Belgian museums and their exhibitions for a year, costing €59 annually. For each visit, Museum Pass pays back the museum half of the full admission price, who also receives a commission for each pass sold. Those with passes enjoy additional benefits, including discounts on train tickets and in museum shops.
More people are using the Museum Pass, with 200,000 active holders accounting for over 1 million visits in the past year, a 20% increase from the previous year. These visits generated €6.8 million for the museum sector last year.
Major exhibitions have contributed significantly to the recent success. The organisation behind the intitiative highlighted the ‘Ensor Year’, commemorating the 75th anniversary of painter James Ensor’s death. Kunstmuseum Mu.ZEE in Ostend became one of the top-visited museums, along with Ensor exhibitions at Brussels’ Bozar and KBR.
In Wallonia, the CAP/Museum of Fine Arts Bergen attracted many visitors with its exhibition on Auguste Rodin, the artist behind ‘The Thinker’.
A more diverse audience is now choosing the museum pass. "Initially, the pass attracted mainly museum fans, but now we see families and day-trippers joining too," said Erika T’Jaeckx, director of museumPASSmusées. "Belgium has a wide range of museums, from the Toy Museum to the Jenever Museum, catering to everyone."
From 2026, pass holders can also visit the Brussels museums KANAL-Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Ixelles. "We are currently negotiating with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels. Our goal is to make everyone a museum lover," T’Jaeckx added.
