The National Natural History Museum of China Photo: Lihao/GT

With the growing enthusiasm of Chinese travelers for museums in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to book tickets at some national or provincial museums. On Tuesday, the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) responded to this issue at a news conference, disclosing the results of its investigation and announcing a set of new regulations to address the situation.   

Liu Yang, director of the museum and antique department of the NCHA said that the NCHA recently carried out an ad hoc investigation of 45 large and medium-sized museums and discovered a widening gap between the supply of high-quality cultural facilities and the growing spiritual and cultural needs of the people. Additionally, scalpers have greatly disrupted the normal ticketing operation of museums. 

The difficulties in booking tickets due to daily limits at museums are not a recent occurrence. At the beginning of 2023, when pandemic restrictions were relaxed, the tourism industry experienced a significant rebound. 

Posts on Chinese social media such as "hard to book a ticket" have trended on more than one occasion.Wang Cixian, a Henan-based museum staffer, told the Global Times that many local museums implemented advanced ticket booking during the pandemic and "now that the number of visitors has increased massively, we have kept this 'tradition.'"

The difficulty is especially "a problem" in mega cities and popular travel destinations such as Beijing and Shanghai. 

A visitor surnamed Xu told Global Times that after ignoring travel tips on Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle social media platform, which advised travelers to book tickets for Beijing museums at least seven days in advance, she found herself unable to make a reservation for the Palace Museum or the National Museum of China four days before her trip to the capital.

In the summer of 2023, more people who took their children to visit museums found it harder to book free tickets through online reservations. In Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province, some people who failed to book tickets on the official websites of museums resorted to purchasing them from ticket scalpers at high prices. Liu stressed that the NCHA is greatly concerned about this issue and has introduced various policies to address it, such as releasing the Notice on Strengthening Museum Services during Summer Vacation and Festivals. Many museums across the country have also adopted their own measures to optimize their services.

The Hunan Provincial Museum, for example, has introduced new rules including issuing tickets for specific dates at different intervals - one, three, five or seven days in advance - and requiring advance reservations for tourist groups, according to a report by the Sanxiang City Express. Next, the NCHA plans to introduce more measures to improve services by improving reservation systems, coordinating with the Public Security Department to combat ticket scalping and blacklisting individuals who get a significant number of free tickets and sell them at high prices.   Additionally, those who book tickets but fail to attend as scheduled will also be subject to blacklisting."Reservations are a way to manage visitor traffic," Chen Lüsheng, a research fellow from the National Museum of China, told the Global Times.