Continuum sees surge in visitor numbers
TOUR COMPANY Continuum Attractions has reported a 20 per cent increase in admissions after a successful year’s trading.
The York-based business also reported a significant double digit growth in revenue year-onyear, as consumers increasingly get a taste for hands-on attractions.
Continuum operates nine attractions in the UK in Edinburgh, Leeds, Oxford, Canterbury, Gwynedd, Cardiff, Portsmouth and York.
These include the popular Emmerdale studio tour and Emmerdale village tour around Yorkshire and the Mary King’s House attraction beneath the streets of Edinburgh.
Group head of sales and marketing, Julie Ozbek, said: “Our visitors love the stories that we tell and the interactive way that we deliver them.
“Our own research confirms that experiences that highlight history and nostalgia are now more in demand than ever.
“We know that more people are staying in the UK for their leisure time now as well as overseas visitors coming into the country.
“Other factors are likely to have had an effect on our increased admission numbers.
“Recent concerns over the safety of the city of London may also have contributed to visitors considering other key tourism destinations within the UK.
“Cities like York and Edinburgh appear to be becoming more popular as destinations.
“Because these cities have been a less obvious choice, particularly to international travellers in the past, visitors are more interested to learn about the broader UK heritage and the unique stories of the places that they are experiencing.”
While York is most commonly known to tourists as being home to Vikings, Continuum’s Chocolate at York’s Chocolate Story attraction in particular has seen a 12 per cent increase in visitors from 2016.
Meanwhile, Oxford Castle Unlocked, which tells the story of the city’s Norman castle turned prison is 13 per cent up on the previous year.
We know that more people are staying in the UK for their leisure time. Julie Ozbek, group head of sales and marketing at Continuum