(2) what estimate he has made of the number of foreign nationals who have visited national museums and galleries in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement.
The number of overseas visits reported by 17 of the national museums and galleries since 1998 are in the table. This is an agreed museum performance indicator.
Financial year Number 1998-99 6,053,600 1999-2000 6,044,299 2000-01 9,348,709 2001-02 9,139,763 2002-03 9,589,987 2003-04 11,805,327 2004-05 10,882,420 2005-06 10,912,808 2006-07 14,256,408 2007-08 15,179,212 2008-09 13,907,317
The Department does not hold the data for 1997.
The financial contributions and proportion of turnover to national museums and galleries by overseas visitors is not collected centrally.