People wait for the Louvre museum to open as employees at the Louvre Museum vote to extend a strike that has disrupted operations at the world's most visited museum, Thursday, December 18, 2025 in Paris. THIBAULT CAMUS / AP
France is hiking prices for non-Europeans at the Louvre this week, provoking debate about so-called "dual pricing." Starting on Wednesday, January 14, any adult visitor from outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will have to pay €32 ($37) to enter the Louvre – a 45% increase – while the Palace of Versailles will up its prices by €3.
Americans, UK citizens and Chinese nationals, who are some of the museum's most numerous foreign visitors, will be among those affected, as will tourists from poorer countries. The French move has few precedents elsewhere in Europe, but is more common in developing countries, where tariffs at sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru or the Taj Mahal in India vary.
Trade unions at the Louvre have denounced the policy as "shocking philosophically, socially and on a human level" and have called for strike action over the change, along with a raft of other complaints. They argue that the museum's vast collection of 500,000 items, including many from Egypt, the Middle East or Africa, hold universal human value. While rejecting discriminatory pricing on principle, they are also worried for practical reasons, as staff will now need to check visitors' identity papers.
