Tours is seated on a treasure. Many facilities make the Ligurian city an attractive and dynamic cultural city. An opera house, a dance center, a dramatic center, a contemporary art center of national interest… And these are not the only assets of the city; which includes numerous museums, the Loire River, the gastronomy city, and a hyperactive associative fabric.
With a budget allocated to culture and heritage of around 26 million euros, more than 10% of the total budget of the City, the outgoing municipal team announced that it has chosen not to cut its expenses in terms of culture. The decisions are even more difficult to make in a context of budget cuts by the State and local authorities. Cultural actors are suffering and making it known. Like in March 2025, when a thousand professionals demonstrated in the streets of Tours.
The Opera House of Tours, with a lyrical and symphonic season, the National Choreographic Center of Tours, which has just completed its new equipment for 17.7 million euros after rejecting a first project considered too expensive, and the Olivier-Debré Contemporary Creation Center (CCCOD) are the spearheads of this attractiveness and weigh heavily in the culture budget. The municipal-run Opera house of Tours has operational expenses of 8.2 million euros. The permanent symphony orchestra project is on track with 32 musicians on permanent contracts and an additional 850,000 euros per year.
High attendance at Tours museums
Since the implementation, at the time of Covid-19, of a unique management of the Tours museums (Fine Arts Museum, Natural History Museum, Compagnonnage Museum, and Tours Castle, with the unique partnership in France with the Paris Jeu de Paume), the attendance figures have increased with 206,569 visitors in 2025, an increase of 10% compared to 2024….
