Press release -
Scotland's visitor attractions up 5.5%
VisitScotland has hailed today’s news that the country’s leading visitor attractions saw an increase in visitor numbers of 5.48% in 2015, above the UK average of 3.2% and above London’s increase of 1.6%.
The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) announced its members’ visitor figures for 2015 today (Monday, March 7, 2016), with Scottish attractions enjoying the greatest increase of 5.48%. Overall, 124.4 million visits were made to the top 230 ALVA sites throughout the UK.
Edinburgh Castle was the most visited attraction in Scotland – ahead of the National Museum of Scotland for the first time in five years – with 1,568,508 visitors resulting in a 5.9% increase.
The National Museum of Scotland was not only the most visited free attraction in Scotland with 1,567,310 visitors but was the most visited museum outside of London. The National Museums of Scotland (comprising National Museum of Scotland, National War Museum, National Museum of Rural Life and National Museum of Flight) saw a combined total of 2,338,240 visits.
For the first time, the National Galleries of Scotland welcomed a combined total of more than 2.1 million visitors – which included a 35% increase in visitors to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two which had hosted a highly-successful The Amazing World of M.C. Escher, while the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One had a 47% increase as a result of ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh saw a 10% increase which it credited to its Lights programme in the winter months. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum enjoyed an increase of 12.4% to 1,261,552 visitors. Riverside Museum has continued to attract more visitors every year since it opened in 2011 and also moves up the rankings, welcoming in excess of 1.1 million people - an increase of 7.8%.
Glasgow’s nine civic museums continue to be a huge draw for residents and visitors to the city alike, with almost 4 million recorded visits – up 5% on 2014.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “These really are spectacular results for Scotland’s leading visitor attractions and it is wonderful to see this country performing above the UK average. Our attractions play a vital role in Scotland’s visitor economy, with accommodation providers, restaurants, cafes and numerous other businesses also reaping the benefits of this continued growth. Last month, VisitScotland launched its first ever global marketing campaign, the Spirit of Scotland, which will inspire even more people to come here and explore our incredible array of attractions.”
Stephen Duncan, Director of Commercial and Tourism at Historic Environment Scotland, said: “It’s great to see Edinburgh Castle at the top of the table in Scotland after another record-breaking year for the castle. We’ve seen particular growth in online and travel trade at the castle in 2015, and following a refresh of the castle website towards the end of the year, I’m sure this will continue. Both Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle have also had record years, with each seeing a rise in visitors signing up for membership – showing that Scotland’s historic visitor attractions continue to be a vital component of the country’s tourism experience.”
Bernard Donoghue, Director of ALVA, said: “2015 continued to be a record year mainly due to our members continuing to show how diverse the UK is to both domestic and overseas visitors. More people visited Edinburgh Castle, the National Museum of Scotland, the National Gallery of Scotland, the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, combined, than visited Jamaica, Barbados and Cuba. More people visited Stirling Castle, Kelvingrove, the Riverside Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Glasgow, combined, than visited New Zealand. Together, more people visited these nine Scottish attractions than visited Australia and New Zealand combined.
“The current weakness of the pound to the dollar and Euro is making the UK a more affordable destination and 2016 is on target to be another memorable year for ALVA members, notably the National Museum of Scotland will see ten new galleries open on Friday 8 July, and later in the same month Facing the World | Self-Portraits from Rembrandt to Ai Weiwei will open at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.”
- ENDS -
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
For further information on ALVA and to download images, please visit www.alva.org.uk
Twitter @alva_uk
For further Press Information and to arrange interviews, please contact
Rachel Aked
Rachel@rachelaked.co.uk
Tel: 07790 732448
NOTES TO EDITORS:
ALVA’s Members are the UK's most popular, iconic and important museums, galleries,
palaces, castles, cathedrals, zoos, historic houses, heritage sites, gardens and leisure
attractions. The 64 ALVA members manage some nearly 2,200 tourist sites and welcome
over 119 million domestic and overseas visitors each year; some 28% of the visits made
annually in the United Kingdom.
March 2016
A total of 65,218,272 people visited attractions in London with the Top 10 most visited attractions all London based. The British Museum continued to be the most popular visitor attraction overall for the 9th year running with 6,820,686 visitors and remaining in 2nd place was the National Gallery with 5,908,254 visitors. 3rd place was achieved by the Natural History Museum, which saw 5,284,023 visitors.
Temporary Exhibitions played a crucial part in this year’s figures throughout the UK. The largest increase in visitor numbers in the top 10 attractions was Somerset House, which saw an increase of 31% (3,235,104 & 8th place) – mainly as a result of their temporary exhibitions and public programmes. In addition, the National Maritime Museum saw a 10.6% increase following the opening of the new AHOY! Children’s Gallery and their family-focused exhibitions such as Against Captain’s Orders last summer and the Royal Academy credited their 33% increase to Ai Weiwei plus the hugely popular Summer exhibition.
The Library of Birmingham remained the most visited free attraction outside London, in 11th place with 1,828,999 visitors, while Chester Zoo, which saw an 18% increase to 1,694,185 visitors, was the most visited paid for attraction in England (outside London) (12th position) – mainly as a result of the opening ‘Islands’ in June - the biggest new Zoo development in Europe formed by the recreation of amazing tropical environments of six South East Asian islands.
VisitScotland:
- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
- This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
- Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
- Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
- Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
- Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
- Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
- Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
- Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP.
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design 2016 - 2016 will shine a spotlight on Scotland’s achievements in innovation, architecture and design through a wide-ranging, variety of new and existing activity.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design begins on 1 January 2016 and ends on 31 December 2016 and will build on the momentum generated by the current 2015 Year of Food and Drink as well as previous years including Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
- Through a series of exciting events and activity, the year will showcase Scotland’s position as an “innovation nation”, its outstanding built heritage, and its thriving, internationally acclaimed creative industries sector.
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Scottish Government, Creative Scotland, Architecture + Design Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).
- The Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
- Join the conversation at #IAD2016
- Events can join the 2016 Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design Partner Programme throughout the year by visiting http://www.eventscotland.org/YIAD_partner_programme
