Museum is historical and educational place visited by people of all ages, some of which require an admission fee while others don’t. I believe that charging museum visitors have more merits than demerits.
On the one hand, the obligation to buy tickets for museum visits leads to some disadvantages. Firstly, entrance fees may discourage people from visiting. For example, in China, all public museums are free to Chinese citizens. So, low income families and students, who can’t afford places, such as amusement parks and movie theaters often spend their weekends in museums. They may stop visiting if they have to pay to enter. Secondly, museums are mostly run by state funds for educational purpose, so charging fee seem to make it commercial and therefore lose the original purpose of its construction.
On the other hand, I think that there are more advantages when entry fee is charged. The initial reason is to boost service quality in museum because we have funds to upgrade facilities, redecorate or employ security guards. For instance, with revenue from entrance charges, one of the museum in New York City was able to build an up-to-date flood wall. Also, museums will welcome only visitors who want to learn more about history and art, because those wanting to find a recreational place will opt for parks, shopping malls or supermarkets which are free rather than museums. The final benefit is to ease the burden for government budget. If museums tickets are not applied, there should be also no charge for range of other public facilities such as temples, zoos and stadiums, which seems to be impractical.
In conclusion, despite some negative effects of a paid admission for museum, I believe these are greatly overweighed by mor positive impacts.