Some of the museums, such as National Taiwan Museum, ask for entry fee when visitors go there although there is the trend of free admission, i.e. The British Museum and Smithsonian’s museums and galleries. However, it is an acceptable and reasonable business for maintaining the quality services inside the museum and providing a treasurable visiting experience for them with charging admission fee.
Keeping a high quality of museums’ environment and security is the responsibility for the operators. It is imperative for visitors to sightseeing in a nice place with comfortable surroundings with air-conditioning and gleaming conditions. Also, they need to provide some necessary facilities, including security guides rooms, toilets and nursery rooms etc. All items above request heavy costs and they are impossible for the governments to response all the fixed costs because of the principle of user pays.
Of course, applying the users pays principle to museums visiting is a controversial issue. Some people may argue that charging admission fee will impede the educational purpose via museums visiting especially for the low- income families. In my opinion, arts visiting can be regarded as a kind of entertainment and relaxation which is an extra source. As the educational mission of arts, I prefer to promote the arts values in schools instead of reliance on museums visiting with free of charge as arts is one of the personal interests. Therefore, if the ones interests on one thing, she will explore more information on her own, including going to museums despite of the admission fee charged.
Not only protecting from the satisfying environment, but also the irreplaceable visiting experience from the museums and it is depending on the quality of displayed items. People seek for the “first-hand” items because it will be useful for visitors to understand the original concepts of the artists and history. Therefore, asking for the entry fee can avoid the negative impression that the exhibition is a lower value as they will get the wrong concept the items are replicas. Also, if the display items cannot get a well-protection, they are easier stolen, destroyed and smeared, it will lead to decrease the visiting value including misunderstanding the comprehensive concepts of the arts and getting bias on the history. I believe that admission fee can be a way to maintain the displayed items.
In short, museums should or should not ask for the entry fee is a long- standing issue as one of the core factors is the current financial status of different governments. They are going to take a balance between the majority and the minority welfare as it will involve the benefit of the general public so it is difficult for the society to discuss the issue independently.