These are the UK’s most popular tourist points of interest: The British Museum tops the list

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The British Museum in London was the UK’s most-visited tourist attraction final yr, with a surge in guests in comparison with 2022.

It noticed a complete of 5.8 million guests in 2023, a 42 per cent bounce on the earlier yr, in response to commerce physique the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva). The final time the British Museum topped the list was 2019.

Last yr’s reputation was partly attributed to the success of its China’s Hidden Century exhibition, which ran from May till October.

Bernard Donoghue, Alva director, mentioned points of interest are “recovering well” from the coronavirus lockdowns, with 146.6 million visits to main UK venues in 2023 – a bounce of 19 per cent on 2022.

However, he warned “they’re still not back to full recovery” as individuals “got out of the habit of going to museums and galleries” after they had been closed.

The variety of visits to points of interest continues to be under pre-pandemic ranges, down 11 per cent from 163.9 million in 2019 earlier than the Covid-19 disaster.

Mr Donoghue advised Simon Calder’s Independent Travel Podcast the business was ready for “a long and slow recovery after lockdown”.

“There’s a change in the economy, of course, the cost of living crisis. And so people are being much more tactical, sensibly, about how they spend their leisure pounds.”

The restricted return of Chinese vacationers attributable to the nation’s coronavirus journey restrictions can also be affecting general customer numbers to UK tourism hotspots, though the tourism chief is “hopeful that we should get back up to pre-Covid levels of Chinese visitors by the end of 2025”.

After the British Museum, the second most-visited attraction was the Natural History Museum in west London, which had its greatest yr for visits at 5.7 million.

In third place was Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, with 5.5 million visits.

The most popular attraction in Scotland was Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland (2.2 million visits) whereas the primary spot in Wales was taken by St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff (600,000 visits).

Titanic Belfast had the most visits in Northern Ireland, with 800,000 individuals coming to the attraction.

Indoor points of interest noticed a 23 per cent enhance in guests in contrast with a 2 per cent enhance in outside points of interest.

In the Coronation yr, Westminster Abbey had a 49 per cent enhance in guests to 1.5 million.

Mr Donoghue claimed that the authorities’s failure to reverse its 2020 choice to finish tax-free purchasing for inbound guests has led to a “significant decrease” in spending in attraction reward retailers by abroad vacationers.

“We are absolutely missing out on expensive items being bought by visitors from around the world, particularly from America, the Middle East and the Far East,” he mentioned.

“We know that we’re losing out to places like Paris, Milan, Madrid and Rome.”

The UK’s most-visited tourist points of interest in 2023

Additional reporting by companies.