Trinity could stand to lose out on up to €3 million in revenue over the coming months due to the closure of the Book of Kells exhibition, according to TheJournal.ie.
The exhibition, reported to bring in around €12 million a year, closed to the public yesterday as College battles to combat the spread of coronavirus.
There’s no indication of when the exhibition – which shut down alongside the Science Gallery and Douglas Hyde – will re-open, and even three months’ closure could cause Trinity to lose out on up to €3 million ahead of tourist season.
A spokesperson for Trinity declined to discuss the financial cost of the closure, but said it was done for “health and safety reasons”.
“Cost implications were a secondary concern,” the spokesperson said of the exhibition, which had over a million visitors in 2018.
Last week, Trinity announced that a person in College had contracted coronavirus. The person, according to a subsequent email, has now recovered, but yesterday an email signed by Provost Patrick Prendergast and Vice-Provost Jurgen Barkhoff informed students and staff that in-person lectures are cancelled for the rest of the semester.
Tutorials, seminars and labs will continue to take place in person, the email said, in a measure designed to “maintain continuity of teaching and learning while minimizing the need to bring together students in large groups”.
But several departments – including history, sociology and classics – have opted to cancel tutorials and seminars despite the College directive.
Emails sent to students said that arrangements will be put in place for tutorials and seminars to be delivered online.
Meanwhile, the status of Trinity Ball could be in doubt, The University Times reported last week, with College leaving open the possibility of its shutdown pending advice from the HSE’s Health Surveillance Protection Centre.
Students on Erasmus or international exchange are not being asked to return “at this time”, according to an email from Senior Tutor Aidan Seery yesterday.
The email advised students studying abroad “to follow the guidance given to you by your host university and the local health authorities”.
