National Railway Museum makes list of most popular UK tourist attractions

Over 600,000 visits were made last year.

Author: Matt MaddrenPublished 24th Mar 2024

The National Railway Museum in York has made the list of most popular UK tourist attractions.

It comes after a survey by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.

Their data shows over 630,000 visits were made to the museum in 2023.

Indoor attractions saw a 23% increase in visitors compared to a 2% increase in Outdoor attractions. The most-visited attraction in the UK was the British Museum which saw 5,820,860 visits – a 42% increase on 2022 numbers which they attributed in part to the success of the China’s hidden century exhibition that ran from May to October.

Bernard Donoghue OBE, Director of ALVA, commented:

“Our members are not yet back to hosting the same number of visitors that they did in 2019, but they are really delighted that even in a challenging cost-of-living climate visitors are still prioritising spending special time with special people at special places.”

“Whilst the extension of tax relief for museums, theatres and galleries was a very welcome announcement in the recent Budget, there was a missed opportunity to reintroduce tax free shopping for overseas visitors, which would have improved the UK's international competitiveness, and reduce VAT for tourism and hospitality which would have helped businesses repair their balance sheets.”

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