London prices ‘putting visitors off Britain’s top tourism sites’

VISITOR numbers plummeted at London’s top tourist attractions last year because many people cannot afford a trip to the capital, a tourism industry leader has said.

The British Museum, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern and National Gallery welcomed almost two million fewer people in 2017 compared with the previous year. Attractions in London saw an increase of just 1.2 per cent, whereas the UK average growth across 238 sites was 7.3 per cent, including 13.9 per cent in Scotland.

Stately homes, museums and organisations such as the National Trust benefited from the change, experts said, as families chose season passes to heritage sites instead of one-off excursions.

Bernard Donoghue, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva), said: “Economic factors have had an impact on UK visitors to central London, with associated evidence that the costs linked with a visit such as travel, food and drink have played an important part in deciding where to visit.”

The British Museum remained the most popular attraction, despite an 8 per cent drop in visitors to 5.9 million, ahead of Tate Modern, down 3 per cent to 5.7 million, and the National Gallery, down 16.5 per cent to 5.2 million.

2 million The fall in visitor numbers to the top four tourist attractions across London