Visitors increase at attractions but Covid slump still lingers

Visitor numbers at the UK's museums, galleries, cathedrals, zoos, castles and country houses are increasing but remain stubbornly below pre-pandemic levels, with a significant number of people still "out of the habit" of having a day out.

- Mark Brown

Figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) today show a mixed picture.

There was a 19% increase in visitor numbers in 2023 compared with 2022. The British Museum recorded a 42% rise aided by the runaway success of its exhibition China's Hidden Century, making it the most visited attraction in the UK. But overall figures are still 11% down on 2019, when there were 163.9m visits to leading venues, against 146.6m last year.

Bernard Donoghue, the ALVA director, said: "We are seeing really good year-on-year growth but we always knew the recovery from lockdown would take a number of years." One reason is the absence of Chinese tourists, compared with 2019.

"We are hoping to get Chinese visitors back by about the end of next year, but that has been a slow burn," Donoghue said.