Visitors to some London nationals drop for third year running - Museums Association

Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Visitors to some London nationals drop for third year running

Decline attributed to security and economic concerns
London's top four most visited museums all saw their footfall decline in 2017, according to the latest figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva).

Although it remains the UK’s most popular attraction, the British Museum saw visitors drop by 8% to 5.9 million last year. It is the third consecutive year that numbers have fallen at the institution.

The National Gallery experienced an even larger fall of 16.5%, moving from second to third place on the list. Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum – in second and fourth position this year – saw their numbers drop by 3% and 4% respectively.

The exception was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which saw its numbers rise by 26% following the opening of its Exhibition Road Quarter. The museum moved up three places into 5th position as a result of its successful year.

At 6th place on the list, the Science Museum’s figures remained stable, with the institution reporting a small increase of 0.17% at its Exhibition Road site. The Southbank Centre and Somerset House recorded falls of 17% and 6.8% respectively, though the former's decline was due to the partial closure of its site.

Alva’s director Bernard Donoghue said global security issues had “undoubtedly” affected footfall in London, after the city suffered three terrorist attacks in the first half of the year.
 
But Donoghue said economic concerns had played a “more crucial part” on visitors to central London, saying the association had heard evidence that “costs linked to a visit such as travel and food and drink have played an important part in deciding where to visit”.

Disruption to transport services had also had an impact, said Donoghue. “The semi-closure of Waterloo station in August as well as the inconsistent train service from South and South East England also deterred people from travelling to London and encouraged people to visit attractions nearer to home.”

It wasn’t all bad news in the English capital however; Tate Britain moved from 29th to 14th place after attracting 61% more visitors thanks to its David Hockney exhibition, while the Museum of London Docklands saw its numbers rise by 21%, which the museum attributed to its Tunnel: Archaeology of Crossrail exhibition.

Meanwhile the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill saw a 2.7% rise, while Hampton Court Palace saw its numbers increase by just over 10%.

Leave a comment

You must be to post a comment.

Discover

Advertisement