British Museum the most-visited UK attraction again

The British Museum was the UK's most-visited attraction for the first time since before the Covid pandemic, according to a tourism industry body.

Figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) showed there were 5,820,860 visits to the central London museum in 2023, a 42% increase on 2022.

The museum put the rise in part down to its China's hidden century exhibition.

The second most-visited attraction was London's Natural History Museum.

Figures showed the South Kensington attraction had its best-ever year, with a 22% increase in visitors to 5,688,786.

The most-visited outdoor attraction was Windsor Great Park, which is managed by the Crown Estate, with 5,487,856 visitors, which was a 3% decline on 2022 figures.

Bernard Donoghue, director of ALVA, said: "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."

The total number of visits to ALVA sites in 2023 was 146.6 million, which was a 19% increase on the previous year, the figures showed.

But that still represented a decline of 11% on the 163.9 million visits in 2019 to the top 374 ALVA sites.

Indoor attractions saw a 23% increase in visitors compared with a 2% increase in outdoor attractions.

The last time the British Museum was the most-visited attraction was in 2019. In 2022, it was the third most-visited attraction.

Sir Mark Jones, interim director of the museum, said: "It's wonderful to see visitors coming back to support all our great cultural institutions following the pandemic.

"We're proud to be the most-visited attraction in the UK and I want to thank British Museum staff for working tirelessly to give the best offer to our visitors."

In the Coronation year, Westminster Abbey had a 49% increase in visitors and worshippers to 1,587,866, Windsor Castle saw a 66% increase to 1,374,607 visits and Buckingham Palace welcomed 501,499 visitors, which was a 75% increase, during its summer opening between 14 July and 24 September.

In Scotland, the most-visited free attraction continued to be the National Museum of Scotland while in Northern Ireland, Titanic Belfast continued to be the most-visited attraction, ALVA said.

In Wales, the most-visited attraction was St Fagans National Museum of History, near Cardiff, with 594,990 visits - a 23% increase.

Outside London, attractions that performed well included RHS Garden Wisley in Woking, Surrey, in 21st place, and Burghley House in Lincolnshire, which saw an 86% increase to 154,827 visitors after the introduction of an adventure playground.

1. British Museum - 5,820,860

2. Natural History Museum - 5,688,786

3. Windsor Great Park - 5,487,856

4. Tate Modern - 4,742,038

5. Southbank Centre - 3,193,966

6. V&A South Kensington - 3,110,000

7. The National Gallery - 3,096,508

8. Science Museum - 2,956,886

9. Tower of London - 2,790,280

10. Somerset House - 2,727,677