Summer 2021 was a good one for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao with 174,103 visitors passing through its doors in July and August. Despite the continuing pandemic restrictions that have had a particular impact on the foreign public, almost twice as many people were able to visit the exhibitions this summer compared to the 90,290 visitors last year.
The Museum received 67,490 visitors in July and 106,613 in August. If we add the 28,564 visitors who came to the Museum in June, the total figure is 202,667. The figures from the same period in 2020, during which time mobility restrictions were very tight and vaccinations were not yet underway, were 8,383 in June, 37,234 in July, and 53,056 in August.
Spanish visitors accounted for 51% of the total during the summer months, while visitors from other countries accounted for 49%. The rate of foreigners visiting the Museum in July and August has far bypassed visitor figures from the first half of the year when an average of 84% of visitors came from Spain (52% of this total from the Basque country) and only 16% from abroad.
The biggest percentage of foreign visitors this summer again came from France, representing 19% of the total Museum visitors (returning to pre-pandemic levels), followed by those from the Netherlands (5%), Germany (4%), Italy (3%), and the USA (3%).
Among Spanish visitors, higher numbers came this summer from Catalonia (12%), Madrid (8%) and Basque Country (8%).
Wednesday August 4 was the busiest day of the summer with 4,424 visitors, while the Museum daily average was 2,808 this summer.
The Museum very much welcomes this data as it demonstrates the renewed desire of visitors from both Spain and abroad to visit the Museum as travel and capacity restrictions begin to ease. Visitor satisfaction rates have also been very high thanks to the varied and appealing art program this summer, where the exhibitions The Roaring Twenties, sponsored by BBK, The Line of Wit, Cecilia Bengolea: Animations in Water in the Film & Video Gallery, and Masterpieces from the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum Collection are still on view.