England’s leisure tourism market grows, Most visited attractions in England

VisitEngland’s Annual Attraction Survey reveals significant growth in visitor numbers at England’s gardens, farms and leisure and theme parks. Out of the 1500 English attractions in the survey, outdoor attractions performed particularly well in 2015. Gardens, farms and leisure and theme parks reported the biggest increase in visitors, each up 7%, with wildlife attractions and country parks also seeing visitor numbers grow by 4%.

Visits to rural and coastal attractions grew by 5% and 4% respectively, echoing VisitEngland research that shows an increase in domestic holidays to the seaside (up 7%) and countryside (up 12%) in 2015.

Tourism Minister Tracey Crouch said, "Year after year, our world-class tourist attractions continue to draw millions of visitors not just into London, but to the country as a whole. It is fantastic to see such strong growth across the regions, particularly in rural and coastal communities. Tourism contributes around £60 billion to our economy every year and these results show that the benefits of this thriving industry are being spread more evenly around the country."

VisitEngland Chief Executive Sally Balcombe said, “The attractions sector is an integral part of our national tourism offer and plays a crucial role in driving economic growth across all of England’s regions. It’s great to see that more people explored the country’s stunning gardens and scenery in 2015, and we will be further highlighting gardens to visitors this year as we celebrate 2016 as the ‘Year of the English Garden'.”

The Tower of London remained the most visited ‘paid for’ attraction with 2.8 million visits followed by Westminster Abbey and Kew Gardens which saw 1.6 million visitors each.

Topping the list of free attractions for the eighth year was the British Museum with more than 6.8 million visitors followed by the National Gallery (6 million visitors) and the Natural History Museum (5.3 million visitors).

Visits to England’s attractions rose by 2% in 2015 with revenue up 5%.

VisitEngland’s latest figures show that the first four months of this year have set a record for domestic holiday trips in England with trips up 8% to 11 million and spend up 22% to £2.8 billion.

Most visited attractions in England – Free Attractions – 2015

Name of Attraction	Region	Category	2014 visitors	2015 visitors
British Museum	London	Museums & Art Galleries	6,695,213	6,820,686
National Gallery	London	Museums & Art Galleries	6,416,724	5,908,254
Natural History Museum	London	Museums & Art Galleries	5,388,295	5,284,023
Tate Modern	London	Museums & Art Galleries	5,785,427	4,712,581
Brighton Pier	South East	Other	4,500,000 (E)	4,600,000 (E)
Victoria and Albert Museum	London	Museums & Art Galleries	3,651,450	3,888,374
Science Museum	London	Museums & Art Galleries	3,358,086	3,356,212
Alexandra Park and Palace	London	Historic Properties	2,700,000 (E)	2,800,000 (E)
National Portrait Gallery	London	Museums & Art Galleries	2,062,502	2,145,486
British Library	London	Museums & Art Galleries	1,627,599 (E)	1,579,570 (E)
National Maritime Museum	London	Museums & Art Galleries	1,517,787	1,358,964
Tate Britain	London	Museums & Art Galleries	1,357,878	1,284,519
Imperial War Museum London	London	Museums & Art Galleries	914,774	1,102,655
MAC Birmingham	West Midlands	Other	996,523	1,028,371
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery	West Midlands	Museums & Art Galleries	696,488	909,935
Museum of London	London	Museums & Art Galleries	909,645	872,978
Ashmolean Museum	South East	Museums & Art Galleries	875,407	848,359
Museums Sheffield: Millennium Gallery	Yorkshire & Humberside	Museums & Art Galleries	764,892	764,639
Horniman Museum and Gardens	London	Museums & Art Galleries	870,051	758,868
Durham Cathedral	North East	Places of Worship	734,000 (E)	755,000 (E)

Most visited attractions in England – Paid Attractions – 2015

Name of Attraction	Region	Category	2014 visitors	2015 visitors
Tower of London	London	Historic Properties	3,081,939	2,785,249
Westminster Abbey	London	Places of Worship	1,786,106	1,664,850
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Gardens	London	Gardens	1,368,565	1,622,821
St Paul's Cathedral	London	Places of Worship	1,782,741 (E)	1,609,325 (E)
Chester Zoo	North West	Wildlife	1,432,867	1,516,808
Windermere Lake Cruises, Bowness	North West	Other	1,469,189	1,482,899
Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo	Yorkshire & Humberside	Leisure / Theme Parks	1,536,279	1,470,828
Stonehenge	South West	Historic Properties	1,346,177	1,366,765
ZSL London Zoo	London	Wildlife	1,318,621	1,265,911
Drayton Manor Theme Park	West Midlands	Leisure / Theme Parks	1,064,835	1,210,141
Royal Academy of Arts	London	Museums & Art Galleries	824,793	1,096,608
RHS Garden Wisley	South East	Gardens	1,023,715	1,087,927
Roman Baths	South West	Museums & Art Galleries	1,015,135	1,044,802
Colchester Zoo	East of England	Wildlife	964,222	964,050
Eden Project	South West	Gardens	867,362	960,029
Canterbury Cathedral	South East	Places of Worship	1,004,573 (E)	957,355 (E)
Houses of Parliament	London	Historic Properties	1,253,326	928,855
Tatton Park	North West	Historic Properties	834,500 (E)	875,000 (E)
Tower Bridge Exhibition	London	Historic Properties	646,659	786,603
Royal Observatory Greenwich	London	Museums & Art Galleries	785,962	778,865

Visitor admission trends 2015 – by attraction category

Type of Attraction	Visitor admission trends 2015
Country parks	4%
Farms	7%
Gardens	7%
Historic houses / castles	2%
Other historic properties	2%
Leisure / theme parks	7%
Museums / art galleries	-0.5%
Steam / heritage railways	2%
Visitor / heritage centres	3%
Wildlife attractions/zoos	4%
Workplaces	4%
Places of worship	-0.5%
Other	2%

Visitor admission trends 2015 – by region

Region	Visitor admission trends 2015
North West	4%
North East	3%
Yorkshire & Humberside	2%
East Midlands	6%
West Midlands	6%
East	3%
London	-3%
South East	3%
South West	6%

Tags:England’s leisure tourism