140 nations in 1 month: FIFA museum has global appeal

The FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich is attracting guests from all over the world and, in August alone, people from some 140 countries visited the new home of football history. Having opened its doors to the public in February this year, the FIFA World Football Museum has been collating statistics on the different nationalities of its visitors since mid-July. The results have exceeded expectations and in the month of August - considered the height of the tourist season in Zurich - visitors from some 140 countries were welcomed at the museum. “Our aim is to become the must-see attraction and, at the same, another major international tourist destination for the city of Zurich,” says Stefan Jost, the museum’s Managing Director. “So it is great to see that, in just August, we had visitors from around two thirds of the countries in the world.” Martin Sturzenegger, the Director of Zurich Tourism, said he was delighted with the figures, adding: “The FIFA World Football Museum is clearly a major asset for the city of Zurich and the tourism industry here.” Perhaps unsurprisingly given its close proximity to Switzerland, Germany tops the list of international visitors to the FIFA World Football Museum. The UK is second in the rankings, with the USA currently sitting in third place. Many visitors are from further afield, with Middle-Eastern and Arab-speaking countries showing a keen interest. The museum is also proving very popular with people from China, Brazil and India, and visitor numbers from each of these three countries outnumber those from Switzerland’s neighbours Austria. “We were particularly pleased to see that Brazil is also in the top ten, as our first temporary exhibition – Brazil 2014 Revisited – is opening on 21 September.” said Jost. The new exhibition takes a look back at the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ and the fascinating history of Brazilian football. More information on Brazil 2014 Revisited can be found on the museum’s <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fifamuseum.com/exhibitions-and-events/exhibitions/brazil-2014-revisited/">official events page</a>.