Speaking on the TV programme Al-Hekaya late on Saturday, Ghoneim said the museum currently receives between 7,000 and 10,000 visitors per day, down from a peak of around 24,000, after the museum capped daily attendance at 15,000 to preserve the quality of the visitor experience.
He described current attendance levels as “acceptable” for the summer season, noting that they remain “lower than expected” due to high temperatures and the seasonal nature of tourism.
Ghoneim said the museum has detected fake booking websites operating from inside and outside Egypt since the launch of its online reservation system several months ago, adding that coordination is continuing with relevant authorities to shut them down.
He said the museum is dealing with two forms of ticket-related abuse: fake online booking platforms and the internal “recycling” of tickets, with the latter currently under investigation by the Public Prosecution.
Ghoneim added that ongoing media coverage of the official booking platform has helped reduce the scale of the problem, and said an agreement with local mobile operators is expected to be announced within days to curb fake ticketing websites.
The issue follows earlier warnings by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities against fraudulent websites impersonating the museum’s booking system. The ministry previously said legal action had been taken against such platforms and urged visitors to use only the museum’s official ticketing channels.
Ghoneim also praised positive international reactions to the museum, citing a recent Forbes article that commended the visitor experience, including security, hospitality, cleanliness, and the quality of the museum display.
He announced that a new library will open next week in cooperation with the French side, housing around 17,000 books on history, civilization, and heritage in several languages.
The museum is also expanding its cultural and visitor services, including the opening of new restaurants and shops and the launch of a “Summer School” programme for children offering cultural and scientific activities.
The Grand Egyptian Museum, located near the Giza Pyramids, is central to Egypt’s strategy to expand cultural tourism and increase the sector’s contribution to foreign-currency revenues. The museum, built as the world’s largest museum dedicated to a single civilization, houses more than 50,000 artefacts and brings the full Tutankhamun collection together for the first time.
The museum’s latest figures also place it among major global institutions, though still below the world’s busiest museums.
The Louvre in Paris received more than 9 million visitors in 2025, or roughly 24,700 per day, while the Vatican Museums drew 6.9 million, or around 18,900 per day. London’s Natural History Museum recorded 7.1 million visits in 2025, and the British Museum 6.4 million, equivalent to about 19,500 and 17,600 visits per day, respectively.
Other leading museums posted figures closer to GEM’s current summer levels.
The Prado Museum in Madrid surpassed 3.5 million visitors in 2025, averaging about 9,600 per day, while the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington recorded about 3.3 million visits, averaging about 9,000 per day.
However, GEM’s cumulative total of more than three million visitors in seven months suggests a stronger average pace than the current summer turnout alone would indicate.
Over the period, the figure averages roughly 14,000 visitors per day, putting the museum in line with top-tier global institutions such as the Uffizi Galleries in Florence and the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City.
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