Leading Visitor Attractions

The British Museum – one of the UK’s top 10 visitor attractions. Source: The Times.

NMDC UK enews, ALVA publishes annual visitor figures, April 2016

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions has published the visitor figures of its members for 2015. Highlights include:

• Overall figures are up by 3.2%
• The top 10 visitor attractions were all in London with the British Museum receiving the most visitors (6,820,686 ) for the ninth year running. The National Gallery was second (5,908,254) and the Natural History Museum third (5,284,023). Both London Tates saw a decline in visitor figures – by 19% at Tate Modern, where visitor figures tend to fluctuate more than other London venues.
• The most visited attraction outside London was the Library of Birmingham.
• Many of the attractions seeing the largest visitor increases based their success on touring exhibitions – the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two had a 35% increase, helped by its Escher exhibition.
• The National Maritime Museum saw a 10.6% increase having opened a new children’s gallery and the immersive event ‘Against Captain’s Orders’.
• The World Museum in Liverpool saw an 8% increase with the exhibition ‘Mayas: revelation of an endless time’.
• The National Museum of Scotland (1,567,310) was the most visited museum outside London, although Edinburgh Castle was the most visited attraction in Scotland.

Director of ALVA Bernard Donoghue said late-night openings and membership events were driving interest from ‘a younger and culturally curious’ new audience. The weakness of the pound against the euro and dollar also drove foreign visits.  ALVA, Arts Professional, Guardian