Designs on success... half a million visit V&A in six months
IT opened only six months ago to great fanfare, at a cost of £80 million.
Now the V&A in Dundee is already one of Scotland’s most popular tourist attractions after welcoming half a million visitors.
Bosses had expected it to take a year to reach the milestone.
If footfall continues at the same rate, the waterfront museum – designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma – will become one of only seven sites in Scotland to welcome more than one million visitors a year.
It is the first time a Dundee attraction has achieved such impressive visitor numbers. The National Museum of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle each recorded more than two million visits last year, while the Scottish National Gallery and St Giles’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, and Glasgow’s Riverside Museum and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, welcomed more than one million people.
The 500,000th person to visit V&A Dundee was officially welcomed shortly after 10.30am yesterday.
The design museum, part of the city’s £1 billion waterfront regeneration, opened on September 15. Director Philip Long said: ‘It has been an extraordinary opening period for V&A Dundee and the support from visitors has surpassed all expectations.
‘V&A Dundee is flourishing as a hub of creativity and learning and it’s wonderful to see so many people enjoying it, with many returning time and time again.’
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: ‘V&A Dundee is a powerful symbol of Dundee’s new confidence, raising the national and international profile of the city and increasing Scotland’s attractiveness to tourists.’