UK attractions lag behind pre-Covid visitor numbers

London’s British Museum and Natural History Museum are thriving but most UK tourist attractions are lagging well behind pre-Covid visitor numbers.

- SIMON CALDER

That is the conclusion from analysis by The Independent of last year’s numbers from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva).

Total visitor numbers to 400 attractions are down 8.8 per cent compared with 2019 – meaning one in 11 tourists are staying away. The English capital has a monopoly on the top 10 sights: all are in or very close to London.

The British Museum heads the table, with 6.48 million visitors, which is 4 per cent ahead of pre-Covid figures. The Natural History Museum drew 6.3 million visitors last year, a rise of onesixth in five years.

In third place is Windsor Great Park at 5.67 million. Tate Modern, the Southbank Centre, the V&A, the National Gallery, Somerset House, the Tower of London and the Science Museum complete the top 10.

The V&A South Kensington saw its busiest summer since 2018, welcoming more than one million visitors between July and September – thanks, in part, to the temporary Taylor Swift Songbook trail.

The director of Alva, Bernard Donoghue, told The Independent travel podcast: “We celebrate the fact that London is so popular and a must-see destination for the world. But it is a real challenge to get people out of London.

“That’s why we’ve been doing a lot of work with destination management organisations and local visitor economy partnerships to promote them as part of an itinerary to overseas visitors.”