The website reported that the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. has seen attendance jump by two million visitors to 7 million in 2008, and came joint first on Forbes Traveler’s most-visited list.

It was tied with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, also located in the US capital.

The National Gallery of Art, a Smithsonian affiliate institution, also in Washington D.C., came in at third with 3.96 million visitors. The Metropolitan Museum in New York came in at fourth with 4.7 million visits and New York’s American Museum of Natural History came rounded out the top five with 4 million visitors.

Museums across the top 25 list saw improved visitor ratings or at the very least kept pace with the year before.

Nancy O’Shea, public relations director at Chicago’s Field Museum, which attracted 1.4 million visitors, said: “High gas prices in 2008 may have had some impact, but overall our attendance was a bit higher than we projected.”

Close Window