AIBU to think that tourist attractions in Europe need to stop third party ticket sales?

[Emori]

It's perfectly possible to do but they obviously CBA. Anyone can register themselves as a travel agent, bot buy months-worth of timed entry tickets and sell them on Viator and getyourguide for 4x face value, or more, as so called "skip the line". The latest racket they've uncovered at the Louvre was going on for ten years. I personally decided to stop going to Italy a couple of years ago because I was so sick of all this nonsense every time I wanted to visit a gallery or museum, it's such a time consuming pita to navigate. But it's a problem across Europe, because the venues set up these systems where the only way you can get in is to book online but at the same time their security is so shit they leave themselves wide open to bot buying or possibly even collude with the bot buyers. There are huge web platforms dedicated to this kind of resale and for at least the last decade but especially since covid when everything went online and timed entry it has made accessing culture and art costly and frustrating.

www.euronews.com/culture/2026/02/14/10-million-ticketing-scam-at-louvre-museum-nine-people-under-investigation

Couldn't you just go to Italy and not pay for those tickets?

Yes, I could absolutely go to Italy, look at the uffizi from the outside then fly back home again. But that would also be a waste of my time.

This piece sets out the issues very well.

Museums and art galleries are publicly funded bodies and gatekeepers for culturally significant works of our shared human heritage and I think it is a shame that they have allowed themselves to be bought by criminal interests or indeed in the case of the Louvre actively colluded with such interests.

https://www.wonderfulmuseums.com/museum/louvre-da-vinci-exhibition-tickets-resale/#googlevignette

Meh. It's the same as concerts. If people stopped massively overpaying for tickets, the touts would be out of business overnight. I don't feel sorry for anyone spending £1000 on a Harry Styles ticket, I think they're an idiot. Same for anyone that does the same for a Louvre ticket.

Totally agree Op.

Its not the same as a concert where it’s very obvious it’s a reseller - well known sites, original ticket price easy to find etc.

It is VERY difficult to tell which is the official site and after that, who is a legitimate seller through something like the tourist board.
Both Rome and Barcelona are bad for this.

Have a look at getting tickets for the Colosseum online. Bet the first page of google doesn’t even have the official
site. It’s actually the unlikely names coop culture - who would guess that is the best source?

Barcelona in fact has a number of “Pass cards” which actually work out more expensive then booking directly with the sites. I mean they work ( as in get you in) but offer no value.

@ColdAsAWitches Like I said, the article sets out the issues really well.

People travel thousands of miles to visit these institutions which are publicly funded and they control access to the works and artefacts within them. There is no other way to access the culturally significant items they have custody of other than to buy tickets online. But in practice what is happening is that even that is not available - the online tickets are scalped immediately they become available, and the person travelling those thousands of miles has only the option of buying from a criminal or not accessing the culturally significant works at all.

The da Vinci exhibition supposedly "sold out" in seconds - it did not "sell out" to art lovers and touristic culture seekers. It sold out to criminals who then proceeded to scam and cheat the art lovers and culture seekers who wanted tickets and travelled for tickets, for months - really for almost half a year.

This is the most recent and high profile example but it is happening all the time across Europe. We are having our culture barricaded from us by criminal operations. For example two years ago there were no tickets to the Colosseum in Rome available on the website, it was actually not possible to buy them, the only places to purchase for that entire summer according to an eventual official enquiry was third party resellers like getyourguide and so on. This wasn't stupid people paying too much money because they were thickos, it was people who had booked plane tickets, train tickets, hotels and so on, who had no other way of accessing a culturally significant site.

@123123again Rome is awful but actually the whole of Italy is terrible for it. Even getting a city pass doesn't work there, as the booking slots for city passes are so limited. So you get the insane situation where people have bought city passes for say €80 and then end up paying another €50 at Viator anyway, because the only place that has actual tickets that can get them in is Viator. For a gallery with supposedly a say €11 entrance fee. Like I say I've just stopped going, it's too frustrating.

the person travelling those thousands of miles has only the option of buying from a criminal or not accessing the culturally significant works at all.

That's exactly my point. Don't pay the stupid money. There's a hundred museums other than the Louvre in Paris. You can walk through sites older than the Coliseum for free in Rome. It's not like there isn't choice.

It’s interesting though, and as OP says it shouldn’t be an issue. There’s no need for it.
And people should be able to get to see the Mona Lisa, or whatever, if they want to.
There is amazing art outside of museums yes, but sometimes people want to see the thing- the specific thing.

Yes but the exhibits in question are public. The Mona Lisa say belongs to the French Republic. The government sets tje conditions to view it. It’s therefore not up unscrupulous ticket touts to price people out.

@123123again exactly. Obviously sophisticated flaneurs such as WitchesTeat consider the Mona Lisa to be passe and boring but for the rest of us plebs, we should be able to view works in public galleries.

Tbh I think reselling gig tickets should be blocked too (if eg the Albert hAll and ROH can do it I'm sure as can be that it's within the O2's powers) but that is slightly different - Harry Styles is wonderful God love him, but he's not a culturally significant artefact of global importance owned by a European state power.