It might not all be the “staycation” effect, but according to a new report, British tourist attractions are generally doing quite well.
The report which has been serialised in The Guardian shows that the British Museum came out top of the major tourist attractions in Britain with around 5.8 million visits, an increase of 4% in 2010 compared to previous years. However this wasn’t as big a rise as the National History Museum which has a remarkable 13% increase.
It seems at least for London, we might have moved our public attention from the fine arts to modern art at least going by the figures for the Tate Modern Gallery with a 7% increase to the National Portrait Gallery which saw a 7% decrease in visitors. This might of course have been helped by the “Sunflower Seeds” by Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei which proved exceptionally popular.
Going by the figures, it seems on average the people of Glasgow were the least interested in museums and arts with general loses as shown below. However they did manage a huge jump for the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre.
Glasgow visitor attraction data:
Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum – down 21%
Gallery of Modern Art – down 8%
Burrell Collection – down 8%
Museum of Transport – down 65%
Scotland Street School Museum – down 23%
Glasgow Museums Resource Centre – up 39%
Screenshot from the results:
UK Visitor Attraction Resources:
Guardian data on visitor attractions
Original data from IBM on visitor attractions
Tourist attractions in Britain
Hotels in Britain
Self-catering in Britain
