All of the UK's top tourist attractions are in London, new figures reveal

Tom Marshall7 March 2016

Every one of the UK's most popular tourist attractions is in London, new figures show.

The British Museum, National Gallery and Natural History Museum took the top three slots on a top ten list compiled by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA).

Over 120m visits were made to the UK's leading visitor sites last year. The 124.4m total was a 3.2 per cent rise on 2014.

However, the rate at which audiences to London's attractions grew was trumped by those in Scotland. London venues saw a 1.6 per cent rise in visitors compared to 5.5 per cent in Scotland.

The British Museum maintained its position as the most popular tourist attraction with 6.8 million visitors, ahead of the National Gallery (5.9 million) and the Natural History Museum (5.3 million).

Alva's 10 most popular visitor attractions in the UK in 2015

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Exhibitions like Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at London's Victoria and Albert Museum and the launch of the AHOY! children's gallery at the National Maritime Museum and Audrey Hepburn: Portraits Of An Icon at the National Portrait Gallery also boosted visitor numbers, according to ALVA.

The exhibition of McQueen's work was the V&A's most visited show, with 493,000 people seeing it during its 21-week run, contributing to the venue's overall figure of 3.4 million visitors.

The Library of Birmingham was the most popular attraction outside of London, in 11th place with 1.8 million visits.

The 10 most popular visitor attractions in the UK last year according to Alva

1. British Museum

2. National Gallery

3. Natural History Museum

4. Southbank Centre

5. Tate Modern

6. Victoria and Albert Museum

7. Science Museum

8. Somerset House

9. Tower of London

10. National Portrait Gallery

Edinburgh Castle took the overall top spot in Scotland for the first time in five years at 1.6 million visitors.

Alva director Bernard Donoghue said: "2015 continued to be a record year, mainly due to our members continuing to show how diverse the UK is to both domestic and overseas visitors.

"However, anecdotally our members told us that the poor weather had had an effect and our members in the South East did see a decrease during Operation Stack in Kent as well as following the Paris attacks.

"The current weakness of the pound to the dollar and euro is making the UK a more affordable destination and 2016 is on target to be another memorable year for Alva members."

This year's tourism highlights include a number of events to mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, the unveiling of Land Of The Lions at ZSL London Zoo and Tate Britain hosting an exhibition devoted to David Hockney.

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