Many Museums Charge For Admission While Others Are Free | Band 9 IELTS Essay Sample

Many museums charge for admission while others are free. Do you think the advantages of charging people for admission to museums outweigh the disadvantages? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

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Band 9 IELTS essay sample

It has become more common for museums to charge an entry fee from visitors. In my opinion, the benefits of this practice outweigh the disadvantages.

When museums charge a fee for entry, they can offer better facilities to their visitors. For example, they can hire more people to offer warmer and more considerate services to tourists. They can hire more knowledgeable guides who can provide accurate information about the pieces on display. They can even hire people to babysit for the couples who want to enjoy the museum without getting disturbed by the ruckus created by their little babies. In addition, they can invest in wheelchairs for differently enabled people. Obviously, there are clear benefits to charging an entry fee.

On top of this, the income from the sale of tickets is more stable than the donations received from patrons. Museums that offer free entry depend entirely on the measly funds provided by the government. Consequently, they cannot maintain the museum properly. This actually leads to a fall in the number of visitors. That means even if entry is fee, few people will want to visit the museums. By contrast, tourists will throng museums with state-of-the-art facilities even if there is an entry fee. Needless to say, the most famous museums in the world all charge a fee from visitors.

To sum up, there are more advantages than disadvantages to charging an entry fee from visitors. Of course, the cost of visiting a museum will increase if there is an entry fee but most people will still be able to afford them. Better still, with the entry fee collected from visitors, museums can provide better experience which will encourage more and more people to pay a visit.

Band 7.5 IELTS essay sample

People have different views on the entry fees charged by museums, but I believe that no museum should collect fee from the public because of several reasons.

Removing the admission fee for the museum would benefit the public. The first reason behind this view is that it will benefit the public. In some countries the economic status is not good and people do not wish to spend money on such things because they are struggling to fulfil their needs and they do not have extra money to spend on other things. Secondly, if there is no admission fee, it will attract more people to visit the museum. Moreover, people would visit museums instead of public places such as the park and the seacoast and so on. In that case, people will not only have quality time but also become familiar with the concept of museum and their advantages. Finally, facilitating circumstances like free admission would be a good encouragement to young individuals / a young individual to visit the museum more often and get familiar with the history of their own nations. For instance, King Nader Shah Afshar is the person that Iranian people are always proud of because he expanded the territory of Iran during his rule. His museum is located in Khorasan province and actually it’s free and open to public so that young Iranians all know about his actions.

On the other hand, even though the charging of the admission fee is not beneficial for the people, it does have some benefits. In my opinion, the admission fee helps authorities to recover the maintenance costs of the museum and provide better services to the public. In the same vein, some part of the income could be spent for renewing cultural heritage such as ancient sculptures or buildings that have long been ignored by the governments. The other issue is that when people pay for something they want it to be worth their money. Furthermore, they won’t visit the museum except they have special purposes and scheduled plans to use every minute they have and enjoy their moments Finally, the admission charge avoids the excessive halt of people and actual visitors have more chances of visiting the museum and enjoy their moment. Meanwhile, securing the area with a fewer proportion of visitors would be as easy as securing the crowded area.

In conclusion, although charging an admission fee would be beneficial in some cases, there are more benefits to offering free entry.

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