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06 Mar 2014
UK attractions enjoy strong rise in visitor numbers over 2013
By Tom Anstey
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The British Museum was the UK's most visited ALVA attraction, with 6.7 million visitors coming through its doors
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A number of attractions have seen a big spike in visits owing to a fine Summer in 2013 according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA).
Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard came out the big winner in terms of numbers increase. Helped by the opening of the new Mary Rose Museum, the Dockyard saw an increase of 55 per cent over a year with more than 674,000 people visiting the attraction.
Other UK tourist hotspots such as Kew Gardens, London Zoo and Stonehenge all saw huge leaps in visitor numbers in 2013 compared to a rainy 2012 while the British Museum came out on top with 6.7 million people coming through its doors – a 20 per cent increase on 2012.
Other attractions to fare well included the National Gallery (up 14 per cent to 6.03 million) and the Natural History Museum (up 6.7 per cent to 5.35 million), while London attractions had a 12 per cent increase in 2013, with English attractions overall up 5 per cent and Scottish attractions also up 5 per cent.
A total of 67 of the 197 association members' venues had increases of more than 10 per cent last year, compared with only 16 that enjoyed such rises in 2012.
Bernard Donoghue, director for ALVA, told The Telegraph that the increase was due to a boost from 2012 Olympic Games, a rise in foreign tourists and more families taking a ‘staycation’ during the hot summer.
He said: “There was an Olympic effect because London attractions in particular were the backdrop for a lot of the international Olympic media coverage, such as the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, the National Maritime Museum.”
Donoghue also added that an estimated 73 per cent of British adults visited a heritage site last year, while overseas tourism also increased due to a favourable exchange rate for European tourists.
To see the full breakdown of increases and decreases across ALVA attractions click here.
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