The visitor numbers for Antwerp‘s municipal museums have been tallied. More than 2 million visitors once again found their way to the exhibitions, permanent collections, and numerous projects in the various museums in 2025. A record number.
A little over 2 million people visited the museums in 2025. The biggest draws were the Middelheim Museum, with 800,000 visitors in its anniversary year, and the Museum At the Stream (Museum Aan de Stroom, MAS). The museum galleries, the boulevard, and the roof attracted a combined 562,000 visitors. The Rubens House, with its Rubens Experience, library, and garden (the artist’s residence is closed for restoration), welcomed 97,000 visitors in 2025.
Established (international) venues such as the Plantin-Moretus Museum (123,000 visitors), fashion museum MoMu (123,000 visitors), and the migration-themed Red Star Line Museum (over 100,000 visitors) also performed well. Photography museum FOMU captivated over 95,000 visitors, and DIVA, the museum for jewelry, silver, and diamonds, enchanted over 54,000.
Museum Mayer van den Bergh closed for renovations with a farewell campaign and moved part of its collection to the Maagdenhuis for the ‘Public Favorites‘ exhibition, which attracted 33,000 visitors. The Vleeshuis Music Museum, also closed for renovations, organized a mini-exhibition, tower climbs, and concerts, attracting 17,000 visitors.
The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library welcomed over 35,000 visitors, thanks in large part to the allure of its stately Nottebohm Hall. The sold-out Museum Night attracted 10,000 visitors.
Successful exhibitions and tours
While many museums achieved these impressive visitor numbers through visits to their permanent collections, numerous temporary exhibitions contributed to the increase.
Nearly 5% of visitors to our city’s museums and heritage institutions are inspired by an Antwerp museum guide. In the autumn, the ‘Women’s Affairs / Business Women‘ exhibition at the Plantin-Moretus Museum and the ‘GIRLS‘ exhibition at MoMu were the two standouts. The guided group tours for children and young people remain the most popular at the Red Star Line Museum and the MAS.
Discount cards and museum shops
Discount cards remain powerful tools for repeat visits and broadening the audience: the museum pass was used 160,548 times and the Antwerp City Pass 18,298 times, a significant increase compared to last year (when the passes were used 154,000 and 15,000 times respectively).
The A-card with the reduced rate was used 3,613 times. The MAS and FOMU, in particular, were able to attract many people from disadvantaged backgrounds to visit.
Finally, the rising visitor numbers are also reflected in the revenue figures of the museum shops. They recorded 60,347 purchases, meaning that 7.88% of visitors actually made a purchase. Together, these transactions generated revenue of €1,008,144.71. A strong result that clearly highlights the growth.
Alderman for Culture Lien Van de Kelder (Vooruit): “More than 2,000,000 (!) visitors! An absolute record for our city museums. Our cultural institutions are vibrant places where young and old can take the time to be enchanted, get lost, and find their way back home. Places where we also learn to see things anew, where we reflect on the past, present, and future. Thanks to the Museum Pass, the City Pass, and the reduced rate, we lower barriers and open doors to a very diverse audience. This is how culture truly forms the bridge that connects us and broadens our perspective on the world. With major exhibitions and smaller discoveries, with space for established names and new creators. I invite everyone to discover our wide range of exhibitions in 2026, such as the Antwerp Six at MoMu, Martial Arts at MAS, and Monster Chetwynd at the Middelheim Museum.”
On tourism
- Visit Antwerp in a day or two.
- Antwerp hoteliers see strong year-end but brace for difficult 2026 as average room rates come under pressure.
- Tourism Flanders tightens Airbnb rules to protect housing for singles.
- Brussels shows strong tourism stats as it’s the leading city in the world for international meetings.
- Flanders continues post-pandemic tourism revival with the help of its beers.
- City of Antwerp prepares crackdown on Airbnb growth amid complaints in Sint-Andries.
- ANTWERP SUMMER 2025 | 2.9 million day-trippers and 552,161 overnight stays.
- INDIA | Skyscanner sees rise of ‘shared experiences’ as travel trend.
- BELGIUM | Flight shame? Airports break records during 2025 summer season.
- Belgium sees record number of overnight stays via online platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.
- Antwerp 5th on 2025 Happy City Index.
- Flanders highlights Castles of the Brussels Green Belt.
- Tourism Flanders to tackle illegal Airbnb accommodations amidst housing shortage reality.
- Belgians choose safety, sustainability and convenience for summer travel: climate change, geopolitical instability and flight convenience shape 2025 holiday trends.
- OVERTOURISM | Alternatives for Venice, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Santorini, Paris, Dubrovnik, London and Rome?.
- Belgians book Asia, vintage travel and boutique hotels for spring and summer 2025.
- There’s more than one way to enjoy a cruise.
- SOLO TRAVEL | More expensive, but also some advantages.
- Flanders updates star classification for hotels.
- OPINION | Travelling on a package holiday.
- Are there too many hotels in Antwerp?.
- Antwerp number 1 of 40 most exciting cities to visit in 2024.
- CLIMATE CHANGE & TRAVEL | Is Belgium ready to be the Spain and Italy of the future?.
- Flanders’ art cities residents still proud of their city, but highlight drawbacks of tourism more
- Antwerp hotel industry demands stricter rules and enforcement for Airbnb as business tourism is not recovering.
- Belgians make 4.5 million day trips to Antwerp every year.
- The Major Flaws of domestic tourism in Belgium.
- Discovering Belgium and the Netherlands in COVID times.
Art and museums in Antwerp
- ANTWERP | KMSKA schedules ambitious exhibition programme for 2026, featuring international masters such as Antony Gormley, Philip Aguirre y Otegui and Ossip Zadkine.
- Museums of the City of Antwerp look ahead to 2026.
- ANTWERP | ‘Urban Legends’: three young makers take over Museum Mayer van den Bergh on 29 November, 6 December and 29 January.
- ANTWERP | ‘Suske & Wiske and the Visual Arts’: M HKA shows how a comic strip series Shapes the collective memory.
- REVIEW | ‘La ligne de vie’ René Magritte exhibition at Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA).
- REVIEW | ‘Universal Tongue’, on dance, at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) until 4 January 2026.
- 2028 to be Music Year in Antwerp.
- ANTWERP | Flemish government cancels €130 million new museum building for M HKA in Antwerp.
- MOMU | ‘GIRLS. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between’, 27 September 2025 to 1 February 2026.
- ANTWERP | Museum Plantin-Moretus highlights 300 years of women’s stories in ‘Women’s Business / Business Women’.
- ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh opens exhibition ‘Public Favourites’, from Mad Meg to Delft Blue, look at art through other people’s eyes.
- ANTWERP | Middelheim Museum celebrates 75 years with a summer full of new ways to experience the art park.
- ANTWERP | ‘Compassion’ in the MAS: the many faces of compassion.
- 2025 at the museums of Antwerp.
- 2025 at Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (KMSKA): René Magritte, Marthe Donas, Panamarenko, Hans Op de Beeck.
- ANTWERP | Graphics Museum De Reede ft. Francisco Goya, Edvard Munch, Félicien Rops and Albrecht Dürer.
- ANTWERP | Rubens Experience and Rubens Garden at Rubenshuis.
- ANTWERP | Innovations in the Middelheim Museum provide a completely new visitor experience.
- A visit of the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum – Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) in Antwerp.
- ANTWERP | Discovering queer(ed) art with the Queer Tour at the KMSKA fine arts museum.
- REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
- Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
- Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
- ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
- Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
- ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
- BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
- Red Star Line Museum.
- Paleis op de Meir.
- DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
- ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
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