Tourism (Civ6)

Tourism is one of the main statistics in Civilization VI. It represents the special cultural appeal of a civilization to foreign civilizations. It is closely related to Culture and is key to one of the possible victory types - specifically, Cultural Victory.

Mechanics

Unlike regular Culture, Tourism can't be used for anything by the civilization that produces it - instead, it applies steady pressure to all other civilizations that the player has already met. This pressure accumulates over time, attracting tourists to the various sources of Tourism in your lands, and eventually it may lead your civilization to a Cultural Victory.

Note that for Cultural Victories, pressure from Tourism is applied to civilizations from the moment you meet them. So, exploration, meeting all civilizations, and having them in the game (i.e. liberating captured cities to prevent them from being eliminated) is very important for a Cultural Victory.

Tourism is divided into two types:

• General Tourism, provided by Great Works (all but Relics), Wonders, improvements and certain buildings.
• Religious Tourism, provided by the Holy City of the religion you've established, and by Relics.

The two types behave differently in the game world. While Religious tourism is potentially much stronger in the first half of world history, it is nevertheless based on the antiquated ideas (and items) which are later negated and become less effective. General tourism sources, on the other hand, have a broad rational appeal which retains its strength through the ages.

Even so, certain actions like constructing the Cristo Redentor or picking the Reliquaries belief can help sustain your Relics' cultural importance through the ages.

Tourism lens

Main article: Lens (Civ6)

Domestic Tourists and Visiting (Foreign) Tourists

There are two different kinds of tourists which are important to understand when it comes to a Cultural Victory. You can track their numbers in the Cultural Victory tab of the Victory screen.

Each civilization is designated with numbers for domestic tourists and foreign tourists. To win a Cultural Victory your civilization must attract a higher number of total visiting tourists than the highest of any other civilization's domestic tourists.

• Domestic Tourists are the "internal" tourists of a civilization. They visit the sights and enjoy the events in their homeland, as opposed to other lands. They are attracted over time by a civilization's total Culture: the more it produces, the more domestic tourists it will generate. This is important because it directly influences other civilizations going for a Cultural Victory: as long as one has many domestic tourists, an opponent will have to struggle that much harder to win culturally!
• Foreign Tourists are the "external" tourists, those from a civilization's total tourist contingent that choose to visit other lands rather than their own. They are attracted by other civilizations' Tourism output.

Note that each civilization's tourist contingent starts as one, but each turn they choose whether to visit their own lands or a foreign country. If you can attract foreign tourists from another civilization faster than they can generate tourists then the number of their domestic tourists will fall and the barrier to victory might also lower, if that civilization has the highest number of domestic tourists of all. You can visualize this dynamic if you track their domestic tourists growth in the moments other civilizations take their turns, and then compare the numbers after the process ends. You will notice that they reach a certain number, which goes down afterwards - this is because your civilization's Tourism effect is calculated last, and it has taken out some domestic tourists to turn them into your visiting tourists.

The total number of tourists a civilization attracts is calculated as follows:

Total Tourists = Domestic Tourists + Foreign Tourists = Lifetime Culture Accumulation / 100

Note that civic boosts count towards the lifetime Culture accumulation.

The number of visiting (foreign) tourists your civilization can attract from another is calculated as follows:

Foreign Tourists = Lifetime Tourism Output to that Civilization / (# of civilizations * 200)

Note that in Rise and Fall the modifier was increased to 200 from 150, and that a bug seems to fix the number of civilizations at 8 regardless of how many there are and whether or not they've been eliminated, so the divisor is 1600. One cannot attract more foreign tourists than a civilization has total tourists. Also, these calculations are made from an individual civilization's perspective (i.e. in a multiplayer game there is no concept of "shared" foreign tourists distributed across multiple players).

The latter stages of the game typically have Tourism outputs per turn in the order of thousands after modifiers, and thus this renders early Tourism gains negligible - one late-game turn might accumulate the entire Tourism output of the first 150 turns. However the buildings, items or wonders that gave rise to early Tourism may prove to be valuable for a Cultural Victory in the latter stages.

Cultural dominance

(This section applies only to the Gathering Storm ruleset.)

As stated above, in order to win a Cultural Victory, you need to attract a total number of visiting tourists larger than any other civilizations' number of domestic tourists. On your way to defeat the civilization with the highest number of domestic tourists, you will step by step become culturally dominant over other lesser cultures. Having cultural dominance over a civilization provides you with these benefits:

• International Trade Routes to their cities provide +4 Gold.
• Spy missions in their cities are 50% faster to complete.
• Your citizens exert 25% more Loyalty pressure on their cities.

Sources of Tourism

Base Tourism is produced by very specific sources.

Great Works

Main article: Great Work

Great Works are items of exceptional cultural quality which are important enough to contribute to world culture in general. There are three types of Great Works:

Great Works of Art

They are produced by the Great Artists, Great Writers, and Great Musicians attracted to your civilization, and all of them create General Tourism.

• Each Great Artist can create three Great Works of Art. Each artwork contributes +3 Tourism. Museum theming doubles these values.
• Each Great Writer can create two Great Works of Writing. Each piece of literature contributes +4  Tourism. After the discovery of Printing, Great Works of Writing contribute +8  Tourism each. In Gathering Storm, each Great Work of Writing contributes +2 Tourism, doubling to +4 Tourism after researching Printing.
• Each Great Musician can create two Great Works of Music. Each musical score contributes +4 Tourism.

Artifacts

Artifacts are dug up by Archaeologists and also create General Tourism. Each Archaeologist produced by a city which has constructed an Archaeological Museum can acquire three Artifacts (six for England in the base game and in R&F). Each Artifact provides +3 Tourism, which can double to +6 Tourism if the Archaeological Museum is themed.

Relics

Relics can be created when an Apostle with the Martyr promotion dies in theological combat. Relics generate Religious Tourism, specifically contributing +8 Tourism. The Reliquaries religious belief increases output of Relics to +24 Tourism. Relics in the city with St. Basil's Cathedral receive an extra +8 Tourism, meaning if you have Reliquaries religious belief, each Relic in the city with St. Basil's Cathedral will grant +32 Tourism. The Wonder Mont St. Michel is helpful for collecting relics since it provides 2 Relic slots and grants newly created Apostles the Martyr promotion automatically.

Great Works, Artifacts and Relics can only be created or housed if your civilization has appropriate building types, and free slots, to hold the item - for example, an Art Museum for a Great Work of Art or an Amphitheater for a Great Work of Writing.

Districts, buildings and Wonders

• All Wonders in the game generate +2 Tourism in the era they belong to and an additional +1 Tourism for each era that has passed. (France's wonders have double these values.)
• Holy Cities generate +8 Tourism per turn of the Religious variety.
• Ancient Walls generate +1 Tourism after discovering the Conservation civic.
• Medieval Walls generate +2 Tourism after discovering the Conservation civic.
• Renaissance Walls generate +3 Tourism after discovering the Conservation civic.
• Shopping Malls generate +4 Tourism.
• Ferris Wheels generate +2 Tourism.
• Arenas generate +1 Tourism after discovering the Conservation civic.
• The Hungarian Thermal Bath provides +3 Tourism if it is in a city with a Geothermal Fissure.
• Stadiums generate +2 Tourism if the city  Population is 10 or higher and +5 Tourism if the city Population is 20 or higher (as of the March 2018 Update).
• Aquatics Centers boost wonders built in the city adjacent to a coastal tile by +2 Tourism.
• +10 Tourism from Campus districts is provided by the Information Era Great Merchant, Jamsetji Tata.
• +10 Tourism from Industrial Zone districts is provided by the Information Era Great Merchant Masaru Ibuka.

Tile Improvements

• The Open-Air Museum, unlike every other Culture generating improvement, provides Tourism without the need for Flight.
• Seaside Resorts can be built after researching the Radio technology. These generate Tourism equivalent to the tile's Appeal, as well as some Gold.
• Ski Resorts may also be built after researching the Professional Sports civic. They work similarly to Seaside Resorts, but are built in Mountains.
• Improvements and buildings generate Tourism based on their Power output if you have constructed the Biosphère.
• Designating National Parks can greatly enhance Tourism and Amenities. A National Park's Tourism output is equal to the total Appeal of all the tiles included in the park. National Parks are created by Naturalists, which are units purchased with Faith after advancing to the Conservation civic (or by Mounties, when playing as Canada).

The Flight technology

Once Flight is discovered, a number of new sources of Tourism become available:

• Any tile improvement that generates Culture also generates Tourism equal to the cultural value. This includes many unique tile improvements, such as the Sumerian Ziggurat and the French Château, as well as any unique boosts to improvements' output, like Gallic Mines. Discovering Flight also allows Kampungs to generate Tourism from Food and Kurgans, Colossal Heads, and Rock-Hewn Churches to generate Tourism from Faith.
• The Prasat generates +10 Tourism if its home city has 10 or more Population, increasing to +20 if its home city has 20 or more Population.
• The Thành generates +2 Tourism for each adjacent district.
• The Marae generates +1 Tourism from all tiles with a feature in its home city's borders.

Rock Bands in Gathering Storm

Gathering Storm introduces a brand new civilian unit designed to apply concentrated bursts of Tourism to a single nation. Rock Bands may perform one or more concerts in foreign lands which resist your cultural appeal. While the other standard sources of Tourism continue applying their steady pressure, strategic use of Rock Bands in the late game can significantly speed up your progress towards a Cultural Victory!

Tourism Modifiers

Any Cultural Victory will require careful application of Tourism modifiers. Compounding of modifiers significantly increase the Tourism output above its base level. Here we will describe National Modifiers (which affect your Tourism output irrespective of international affairs) and International Modifiers (which are applied to national Tourism output to determine Tourism pressure on each individual foreign civilization).

National Modifiers

The modifiers below directly apply to the base level of Tourism output from specific types of items. National Modifiers are often multiplied (not added together). Your civilization's total national Tourism output is shown in the main interface bar beside the brown suitcase.

• +200% Tourism from Relics by having the Reliquaries religious belief.
• +100% Religious Tourism after constructing the Wonder St. Basil's Cathedral from the city that constructed it.
• +100% Tourism from Great Works of Writing after the discovery of the Printing technology.
• +200% Tourism from Great Works of Music by slotting the Satellite Broadcasts policy card.
• +100% Tourism from Great Works of Art and Artifacts by slotting the Heritage Tourism policy card.
• +100% Tourism from Great Works of Art and Artifacts through Theming of Archaeological and Art Museums.
• +100% Tourism from all Great Works in a city governed by Reyna with the Curator title. In Gathering Storm, the title is transferred to Pingala.
• +200% Tourism from Artifacts after activating the special ability of Mary Leakey, an Atomic Era Great Scientist.
• +100% Tourism from Seaside Resorts if you have constructed Cristo Redentor.
• +100% Tourism from all forms after the discovery of the Computers technology (reduced to 25% in ).
• +25% Tourism from all forms after the discovery of Environmentalism.
• +100% Tourism from National Parks with the Golden Age Dedication: "Wish You Were Here".
• +50% Tourism from Wonders with the Golden Age Dedication: "Wish You Were Here".

International Modifiers

After national modifiers have been applied to generate the national Tourism output, further modifiers affect the output to each individual civilization. International Modifiers are summed (not compounded) and calculated per each foreign civilization. Tourism output to each civilization can be seen on the Cultural Victory summary page by hovering over each civilization.

• +25% for Open Borders.
• +25% for having an international Trade Route.
• +25% from having an international Trade Route after activating Sarah Breedlove's, Modern Era Great Merchant, special ability.
• +25% from having an international Trade Route after activating Melitta Bentz's, Atomic Era Great Merchant, special ability.
• +50% from having an international Trade Route and slotting the Online Communities policy card.
• +100% in American cities with a Film Studio against civilizations that have researched at least one Modern Era technology or civic.
• -50% (Religious Tourism only) for Different Religions (note that this penalty doesn't apply if you haven't founded a religion).
• -50% (Religious Tourism only) if the foreign civilization has the Enlightenment Civic. Note that constructing Cristo Redentor eliminates the negative impact of The Enlightenment.
• c. -3% to -40% for Different Governments (a variable penalty dependent upon the combination of differing government types and also game version)

Different government penalty

Having a different government type applies a percentage penalty to tourism between civilizations.

There are two XML parameters involved in the formula for this penalty:

• "OtherGovernmentIntolerance" (Governments.xml or Expansion2_Governments.xml)

• "TOURISM_CONFLICTING_GOVERNMENT_MULTIPLIER" (GlobalParameters.xml)

These parameters have changed once between vanilla and GS expansion.

The formula for calculating tourism percentage penalty for having a different government type:

• (Your OtherGovernmentIntolerance + Foreign OtherGovernmentIntolerance) x TOURISM_CONFLICTING_GOVERNMENT_MULTIPLIER

Base game penalty

Values for OtherGovernmentIntolerance (BASE GAME):

• (0) Chiefdom
• (2) Autocracy
• (2) Oligarchy
• (1) Classical Republic
• (3) Monarchy
• (4) Theocracy
• (2) Merchant Republic
• (5) Fascism
• (6) Communism
• (3) Democracy

Value for TOURISM_CONFLICTING_GOVERNMENT_MULTIPLIER = 3 (BASE GAME)

Base game examples:

• Chiefdom vs Classical Republic = (0 + 1) * 3 = -3%
• Autocracy vs Oligarchy = (2 + 2) * 3 = -12%
• Oligarchy vs Theocracy = (2 + 4) * 3 = -18%
• Merchant Republic vs Democracy = (2 + 3) * 3 = -15%
• Fascism vs Communism = (5 + 6) * 3 = -33%
• Communism vs Communism = no penalty, same government

Gathering Storm penalty

Values for OtherGovernmentIntolerance (GATHERING STORM):

• (0) Chiefdom
• (0) Autocracy
• (0) Oligarchy
• (0) Classical Republic
• (0) Monarchy
• (0) Theocracy
• (0) Merchant Republic
• (20) Fascism
• (20) Communism
• (20) Democracy
• (20) Corporate Libertarianism
• (20) Digital Democracy
• (20) Synthetic Technocracy

Value for TOURISM_CONFLICTING_GOVERNMENT_MULTIPLIER = 1 (GATHERING STORM)

Base game examples:

• Chiefdom vs Classical Republic = (0 + 0) * 1 = -0%
• Autocracy vs Oligarchy = (0 + 0) * 1 = -0%
• Oligarchy vs Theocracy = (0 + 0) * 1 = -0%
• Merchant Republic vs Democracy = (0 + 20) * 1 = -20%
• Fascism vs Communism = (20 + 20) * 1 = -40%
• Democracy vs Digital Democracy = (20 + 20) * 1 = -40%

Example

Suppose our Mongolian city has a themed Archaeological Museum, with Heritage Tourism and Online Communities applied, after we have discovered Computers and activated Mary Leakey's special ability. We have activated Sarah Breedlove's special ability and have Open Borders and a Trade Route with America, but we have different governments - Democracy and Communism.

The National Output is calculated from compounded modifiers:

• 3 Artifacts has a base of +9 Tourism.
• Theming doubles this: +18 Tourism.
• Mary Leakey triples this: +54 Tourism.
• Heritage Tourism doubles this to +108 Tourism.
• Computers multiplies this to +135 Tourism.

The International Output is calculated from summed modifiers:

• +25% for having Open Borders.
• +25% for having a Trade Route.
• +50% for having a Trade Route with Online Communities.
• +25% for having a Trade Route with Sarah Breedlove's ability.
• -40% for having different governments.

The total international modifier is +85%, giving a total output of +249.8, and since it always rounds down, +249 Tourism to America.

This demonstrates how in the latter stage of the game Cultural Victory is dominated by compounding multipliers and favourable international relations, making this simple themed Archaeological Museum generate +280 Tourism per turn.

Strategy

Just as high Culture output gives Domestic Tourists plenty of interesting places to visit within a nation's borders, high Tourism output attracts Visiting Tourists from other parts of the world. A player can win a Culture Victory by attracting more Visiting Tourists to his or her civilization than any other civilization has Domestic Tourists, so culturally oriented players will also want to focus on generating as much Tourism as possible.

Focusing early on Culture and Tourism are not necessarily good strategies since the Tourism impacts are exponentially larger in the latter stages of the game. A focus on expansion, with wonder production if possible, and then producing a large number of Theater Squares mid-game to generate Great Person points and produce Archaeologists is sensible.

After exhausting cultural options, building Seaside Resorts, National Parks, unique cultural tile improvements, and having any other buildings that generate Tourism such as Walls, Ferris Wheels, Arenas, Stadiums, and Shopping Malls, will significantly add up.

Try to patronize Great People specifically useful for maximizing your Tourism output, and be sure to optimize international relations to capitalize on the compounding effect of all of your total multipliers.

Targeting the most culturally advanced civilization, combat wise, may be necessary to reduce the required number of visiting tourists or stop it from becoming unassailable.

Maximizing Tourism from Great Works of Art

Much of the information here is originally from a CivFanatics info page by Victoria, and has been updated and expounded upon by editors of this wiki.

There are a total of 4 types of Great Works of Art:

• Religious: The first available type of Art, and the only type that is immediately themeable in the Renaissance Era. Religious Art is not counted as Religious Tourism and thus will not be negatively affected by The Enlightenment.
• Portrait: First themeable in the Modern Era.
• Landscape: First themeable in the Modern Era.
• Sculpture: First themeable in the Atomic Era.

The availability of each type of Great Work of Art is as follows (noting that the order of Great Artists appearing within an era is randomized every game):

Great Artist	Era	Religious	Sculpture	Landscape	Portrait
Andrei Rublev	Renaissance	3
Michelangelo		1	2
Hieronymus Bosch		3
Donatello			3
Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād				2	1
Rembrandt van Rijn	Industrial	1			2
El Greco		2		1
Qiu Ying				3
Titian		2			1
Hasegawa Tōhaku				3
Jang Seung-eop	Modern			3
Sofonisba Anguissola					3
Angelica Kauffman					3
Katsushika Hokusai				3
Edmonia Lewis	Atomic		3
Claude Monet				3
Marie-Anne Collot			3
Vincent van Gogh				3
Amrita Sher-Gil	Information				3
Boris Orlovsky			3
Gustav Klimt				2	1
Mary Cassatt					3
Wassily Kandinsky				2	1
Total of type
Without Babylon Pack		12	14	18	16
With Babylon Pack		12	14	25	18
Max number of themed buildings
Without Babylon Pack		4	4	6	5
With Babylon Pack		4	4	8	6
Number of leftover (unthemeable) works
Without Babylon Pack		0	2	0	1
With Babylon Pack		0	2	1	0

• If you do not own the Babylon Pack:
  • Throughout the first two eras (Renaissance and Industrial), only Religious Art is theme-able. If you manage to earn all Great Artists that can create Religious Art (by buying or running projects), you are guaranteed to have one themed Museum in the Renaissance Era and three more in the Industrial Era. However, since this perfect scenario is unlikely unless you are playing as Kongo or Russia, it is recommended to trade away any leftover Religious Art for other types of Art after the Industrial Era ends, since you will not be able to earn any more of that type after that point. If Russia is in the game, it may be better not to go for them as Russia often gains so many Great Artists in such a short span of time that they can't use the ones they get, so their works will not be available to trade. Afterward, you can theme Portraits and Landscapes starting from the Modern Era and Sculptures starting from the Atomic Era.
  • Overall, in the first two eras, try to aim for as many Great Artists that create Religious as you can, to ideally be able to theme at least 2 Museums. Among those 6 Great Artists, Michelangelo and Rembrandt van Rijn are not as desirable as the others, since they can only help you theme 1 Museum with Religious arts, so aim for any combination of the other 4. Between Michelangelo and Rembrandt, Michelangelo is worse, because his Sculptures will remain un-theme-able for almost 3 eras. For this reason, also avoid Donatello. Later down the road, Landscapes are the best, thanks to their high availability and can be themed only after Religious. Portraits can be themed at the same time as Landscapes but with slightly lower availability. Sculptures are clearly the worst, they cannot be themed until Atomic Era, with very low availability, and will have 2 leftovers even if you can get your hands on all of them, so always avoid Sculptures. The good thing is Great Artists that create Sculptures, except for Michelangelo, cannot create any other types of arts, so you will always have the peace of mind to skip them all, since as long as you avoid Sculptures, these Great Artists are of no value since they won't help you theme other types of arts. Even if you want Sculptures, always avoid Michelangelo (unless, again, when playing as Kongo or Russia), since he will result in the 2 leftover Sculptures that cannot be themed, and only provide 1 Religious during the time you need as many Religious as possible.
• If you own the Babylon Pack:
  • With the introduction of a new Renaissance and Industrial Great Artist, there are more possibilities regarding theming bonuses in these eras. Landscapes now become the safest choice since the number of Landscapes can be created is now 25, more than other types of art by a long shot and available in every single era. In the first two eras, Landscapes can theme a maximum of 3 Museums, while Religious can theme 4, but Religious will become un-theme-able if you fail to recruit back-to-back Great Artists that can create Religious arts, a possibility that can only be reliably done by Kongo or Russia. However, when playing as those 2 civilizations, since you are so dominant on the Great Artist race, you don't even have to choose who to recruit and who to let go most of the time, so you never have to choose between Religious and other types of art. That makes Religious arts a huge liability when it is inferior in every way to Landscapes. Not to mention, Great Works created by the 3 new Great Artists are worth 4 Tourism, instead of 2, and all 3 of them create at least 2 Landscapes.
  • Basically, in the first two eras of arts, you want Landscapes (for reasons listed above) and Portraits (since it can now be themed in the first two eras and has the second highest availability down the road). Unless you are playing Kongo or Russia, avoid Religious. If you recruit at least one Great Artist that creates Religious, make sure you aim to get at least 3 of them so you can theme some of your Museums and trade away leftover Religious arts. Sculptures are still the worst type of arts: they cannot be themed until Atomic Era (so you will miss extra Tourism in the first 3 eras), have second lowest availability, and none of the 3 new Great Artists create Sculptures so you won't even get the extra Tourism for your effort. For that reason, avoid Donatello and Michelangelo. Michelangelo only provides 1 Religious, which only helps you theme maximum 1 Museum. If you want to go for the risky Religious arts, you want to theme as many Museums with Religious as possible. Donatello create 3 Sculptures that will be stuck in limbo for almost 3 eras before they can be themed. Michelangelo should be skipped 100% of the time (unless playing as Kongo or Russia), since he will result in the 2 leftover Sculptures that cannot be themed, and only provide 1 Religious during the time you need as many Religious as possible. If you recruit Donatello, you need to get at least 2 out of 3 Great Artists that create Sculptures later, only that way can get you theme-able Sculpture Museums without any leftover.

Yields

Two Art Museums. The one on the left has three works by the same Artist; the one on the right has works by three different Artists.

Two Art Museums with Heritage Tourism. The one on the right has Pingala with the Curator title assigned to its city.

A single Great Work of Art produces a base yield of 3 Culture and 2 Tourism, which doubles when it is themed. However, a second Great Work of Art from the same Artist in the same Museum produces only 1 Culture and 1 Tourism, so try to avoid this by moving your Great Artists around to create Great Works in different Museums - otherwise, you'll have to wait 10 turns to move their Great Works of Art. Great Works of Art created by the Great Artists introduced in the Babylon Pack (Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād, Hasegawa Tōhaku, and Wassily Kandinsky) have a base yield of 3 Culture and 4 Tourism instead but this yield still gets reduced to 1 Culture and 1 Tourism if displayed in a Museum with another Great Work of Art from the same Artist. This restriction does not apply to other buildings (the Queen's Bibliotheque, the Bank created by Giovanni de' Medici, the National History Museum) and wonders, so you can use these to store duplicates while keeping the base yield of those Great Works.

The base yields of Great Works of Art can be further modified by the following:

• The Heritage Tourism policy card: +100% Tourism for Great Works of Art
• The Curator title (Reyna in Rise and Fall and Pingala in Gathering Storm)
• Other empire-wide Tourism modifications ( Trade Routes, Open Borders, etc.)

Arts versus archaeology

Great Artists can be gained in advance, so when Humanism is unlocked you can already slot Religious Art and possibly patronize additional Great Artists. This will allow for early and fast theming, which is the real benefit of arts over archaeology. You do not have to wait until Natural History for Archaeologists and then pay 1600 Gold or expend 400 Production to get one to then travel to dig up Artifacts. However, it is better to balance the number of Art Museums and Archaeological Museums after the Industrial Era ends (i.e. all Religious Art is gone), since you are no longer threatened by the prospect that some of your Great Works might be rendered un-themeable. Simply put, if you have leftover Religious Art at this point, there is nothing you can do about that besides trading with your neighbors, which does not solely rely on you and your decisions anymore.

If you are far ahead in the Great Artist race and can see yourself getting the first 3–4, it is worth buying some Art Museums if you can. These can normally be filled a lot faster than an Archaeological Museum, and you can theme all 3-4 of these early if you aim specifically for Religious Art. Overall, you have much more control over what types of Art you can create than what Artifacts of what civilizations and what eras. A Museum costs 1160 Gold compared to 1600 Gold for an Archaeologist, and you still have to build an Archaeological Museum for that. Museums give Great Artist points regardless of type; however, having one Archaeological Museum before the Industrial Era ends is important since it boosts Natural History.

Regardless of your victory type, getting 3 Art Museums and 1 Archaeological Museum is worth it for Inspirations and for Culture. Remember, once you have gained Inspirations, you can always sell Great Works if need be.

Reaching Humanism

Getting the Humanism Inspiration (earn a Great Artist) and therefore getting to Art Museums earlier is a big help. Unless you are playing as Kongo or Russia, this is unlikely to happen without running a few rounds of projects or buying a Great Artist. A Cultural Victory, contrary to popular belief, can actually be achieved very early on, and is quite time dependent (before your opponents get a chance to establish a massive Culture defense against your Tourism). Great Writers alone are not quite enough (especially with the Gathering Storm nerf); Great Artists are crucial to tip the balance.

Yield maximization and the Hermitage

The Hermitage showing identical yields when filled with a Landscape and three Sculptures by different Artists (left), three pieces of Religious Art by one Artist and one piece of Religious Art by another (center), and four pieces of Religious Art by four different Artists (right).

Religious Art is your Tourism gold mine since it is the earliest themeable Tourism source. Never create Religious Art successively from the same Great Artist in the same Art Museum, since 1 Culture and 1 Tourism is nearly useless - you should have 3 Art Museums up as soon as possible. It is perfectly fine to just place all your religious works other places like the Apadana and the Hermitage, though they still cannot be moved until 10 turns have passed.

The Hermitage is useful to some degree, but not necessary unless you are playing for a lot of Great Works of Art. It costs 1450 Production and cannot theme your Works. If it can be auto-themed, then that would make it worth getting but it does not (so this Wonder is only strong under Kristina, and sometimes, Eleanor of Aquitaine for the Loyalty effect). If you can build it early and fast, it is relatively useful to hold duplicate works, but even that does not really justify the high cost for such low amount of resulting Tourism and Culture, except for when you have a Governor with the Curator title in that city. Besides, by this stage of the game, you should be generating enough Culture to get to the better Tourism sources like Ski Resorts relatively fast.

It is common to have other cultural civilizations (especially Russia and Kongo) in the game. You will need to run a lot of Theater Square projects to compete for Great Artists against them, especially during the Renaissance and Industrial Eras when Religious Art is up for grabs.

References

Added in the Rise and Fall expansion pack.
Added in the Gathering Storm expansion pack.