CNA file photo

Taipei, May 22 (CNA) Taiwan's National Palace Museum ranked 13th in attendance numbers for museums worldwide, according to the 12th annual Theme Index and Museum Index, making it one of four museums in Asia to make it into the top 20 of the list.

The recently released index, a collaboration between the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and U.S.-based engineering firm AECOM, shows that attendance at amusement/theme and water parks, as well as museums, rebounded in 2017, with healthy growth after a fairly flat 2016.

The global trend saw France's the Lourve regain its position as the world's most-visited museum, with 8.1 million visitors in 2017, after being knocked off the top spot the year before by the National Museum of China.

While Taiwan's National Palace Museum saw a slight dip in attendance -- from 4.666 million in 2016 to 4.436 million in 2017 -- the attraction remained among the top 20 most-visited museums in the world, and was the third most-visited one in Asia last year.

The report attributed the drop in attendance to "a decrease of tourism from China, reportedly stemming from political tension."

The other three Asian museums that made it onto the top 20 world list in 2017 were the National Museum of China (at number two), the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (at number six) and the China Science Technology Museum (at number 16).

Three of Taiwan's other museums that made it onto the top 20 list for the Asia-Pacific region were the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung (at number nine), the National Taiwan Science Education Center in Taipei (at number 12) and the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung (at number 20).

Overall, the attendance of the world's top 20 most-visited museums in 2017 grew by only 0.2 percent from the year before, taking total attendance from 107.8 million to 108 million, the report noted, while it gew by 13.3 percent for the tops 20 museums of the Asia-Pacific.

(By Kuan-lin Liu)
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