The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, is drawing controversy after reports that it will implement a "dual pricing" policy. The Louvre will raise admission fees for visitors from non-European countries by 45%.
AFP reported on the 13th that the Louvre's dual pricing policy is sparking a debate over discrimination.
Starting on the 14th, the Louvre will charge adult visitors from outside the European Union (EU), Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway an admission fee of 32 euros (about 55,000 won), a 45% increase from the current 22 euros (about 38,000 won). The Palace of Versailles also plans to raise its admission fee by 3 euros.
The Louvre's labor union called the policy "shocking on philosophical, social and humanitarian grounds," and urged a strike against the change along with several other grievances.
The union noted that "the museum's collection of more than 500,000 items, including Egyptian, Middle Eastern and African artifacts, carries universal human value," and said that "dual pricing is discriminatory in principle."
It also warned that practical problems would arise during implementation, such as staff having to check each visitor's ID.
Academia also raised concerns. French geographer Patrick Poncet, in an op-ed in Le Monde on the 1st, compared the policy to that of the Donald Trump administration in the United States, which raised national park admission fees for foreign tourists by $100, and criticized the Louvre's policy as a "blatant return to nationalism."
The French government, however, said, "French people are not obliged to shoulder everything alone," and maintains that the dual pricing could generate an additional total of 20 million to 30 million euros in annual revenue.