Museum ticket sales hit £30,500 in two hours
Younger buyers drove a surge in spending that outpaced recent film openings, according to bank data.
By Enzo Almasi ·
£30,500. That is the total amount Monzo cardholders spent on tickets for the British Museum’s Bayeux tapestry exhibition within two hours of the latest sale opening last Wednesday.
The rapid spending pace drew comparisons to major entertainment events. Data from Monzo, covering 16 million customers, shows that 55% of buyers in the first hour of the ticket release were under 35. Payments during that initial hour totaled £14,100, which is 48 times the amount recorded on a typical Wednesday morning.
The spending on museum tickets also exceeded that of two major film releases this year. Monzo users spent £7,000 on tickets for the film The Odyssey and £6,300 for Spider-Man: Brand New Day on their respective opening mornings. The exhibition’s total first-hour spending was roughly double those figures. However, the average checkout for the museum was £97, compared with £19 for the Spider-Man release. Standard adult admission for the tapestry is £33 at peak times and £27 off-peak.
Demand for the exhibition extended far beyond London. Nearly half of the buyers were based outside the capital, with the furthest purchases originating from Glasgow. The exhibition provides a chance to view the embroidery in England for the first time since it was moved to France in the 11th century.
Thousands of people joined an online queue when tickets went on sale at 10am on Wednesday. The available inventory was depleted within three hours. This was considerably faster than the previous release, which took 24 hours to sell out. The speed of the sellout has prompted comparisons to the demand seen for the Glastonbury festival and the Oasis reunion tour.
The British Museum described the response since the exhibition opened last month as "extraordinary." To manage the crowds, the museum has adjusted its operations. These changes include a new rule banning visitors from taking photographs inside the exhibit. Critics have praised the display for its careful presentation of the Norman Conquest narrative and its technical preservation.
Source: The Guardian
