Chester Zoo ranks high in visitor numbers survey
Museums and art galleries saw the biggest increase in visitor numbers among attractions last year, a new survey reveals.
The visitor category saw an increase in footfall of six per cent on 2017, part of an upward trend that saw the number of visitors rise by two per cent across all attractions in England last year.
Visits to places of worship also saw an increase, with three per cent more visitors in 2018. The figures are contained in VisitEngland’s annual attractions survey which considers responses from more than 1,500 English attractions.
The Tate Modern displaced the British Museum for the first time in 10 years as the most visited site with 5.87 million visitors – with the British Museum following closely, welcoming 5.83 million in 2018.
Topping the list of paid for attractions for the 10th year was the Tower of London with 2.86 million visitors, and Chester Zoo once again in second place with 1.97 million visitors.
The latest domestic tourism statistics show that for the first four months of 2019 Brits took a record 11.8 million domestic overnight holidays in England, up three per cent on the previous record set in 2017.
The tourism industry is worth £106 billion annually to England.
