Record number of visitors at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology 2024: more than 300,000
Bolzano/Bozen, January 2nd, 2025 - Since it opened in 1998, the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology has drawn quite a crowd with the number of visitors increasing every year. In the past year, 2024, the 300,000-mark was exceeded for the first time: specifically, 310.744 people from all over the world paid the Iceman a visit. The museum also remains at the top of the list as a popular study and field trip destination for students: never before have so many school groups from South Tyrol visited Ötzi.
The permanent exhibition about the Iceman and his Copper Age equipment continues to fascinate people from all over the world. Since it opened in 1998, more than 6.5 million people have visited the museum. Apart from the two pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, the museum reached a yearly visitor count between 222,000 and just shy of 300,000 people, with an increasing tendency.
“The months with the highest number of visitors were – as usual – July and August, each with just over 40,000 guests. However now the museum is reaching its capacity limits at many times throughout the year,” Elisabeth Vallazza, director of the museum, commented on the figures. “We are glad that the provincial government is making concrete progress with the construction of the new museum. With a capacity of 300 people, the current building is not sufficient for the increasing demand.”
Origins of museum visitors
The majority of international visitors came from other European countries. The country with the highest share of visits was Germany with 41%, followed by Italy with 30%, Austria: 9%, the rest of Europe: 15%, non-European countries: 5%.
Something special about 2024 was that the museum had a record high number of tourists from Spain, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Denmark. The proportion of visitors also increased from Asia, North, Central, and South America. In addition to museum texts which are displayed in three languages, an audio guide is also available to international visitors in 6 languages. The audio guide was borrowed 32.884 times in 2024 (an increase of 20 % compared to the previous year).
South Tyrol’s schools were more present than ever
This year also saw a significant increase in the number of students from South Tyrol in terms of admissions, guided tours, and workshops. The age group with the greatest number of visits was the primary school students, but even visits from secondary schools saw significant growth. This also pleased Provincial Minister Philipp Achammer, who launched the initiative to grant South Tyrolean school groups free entry to provincial museums at the beginning of the year: “It is important to us as a provincial government to facilitate and promote access to our province’s cultural and historical treasures for children and young people.”
Importance of the museum
The museum is responding to increasing interest from visitors every year by offering the option for online reservations. This allows the museum to make full use of the exhibition area’s visitor capacity, which is only 1,200 m2 in size.
Director of the Museum, Elisabeth Vallazza: “The museum has been an outstanding attraction in the provincial capital for over 25 years. This has been made possible by an efficient team that looks after our visitors professionally every day and also does excellent work behind the scenes. For this, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all employees – both in the museum and in the provincial museums.”
PHOTOS:
classes at the museum (c) South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology / foto-dpi.com
classes at the museum (c) South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology / flipflop collective A. Tauber
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PRESS CONTACT
Katharina Hersel
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Museumstr. 43, I-39100 Bolzano
T +39 0471 320114
press@iceman.it
www.iceman.it
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