Each year, roughly 400,000 people visit Tūhura Otago Museum in Dunedin.
Museums and galleries are calling for a dedicated central fund for cultural institutions, as some resort to fund-raising to protect their growing collection of taonga.
They are among the countries most visited attractions, but are struggling to balance the books and fork out for patching up ageing buildings, seismic upgrades and rising operational costs.
One museum board chairman even attempted a Cook Strait swim to raise money for sprinklers.
They argued they were being left out of conversations about tourism funding, saying the current model was broken and fixing it would require recognising museums and galleries as essential parts of the tourism ecosystem.
