Visitor number to England remains below 2019 level
Released in 2023, VisitEngland's Annual Survey of Visits to Visitor Attractions indicated an increase of 11% by the number of visits. It still remained 28 per cent below the figure for 2019, the pre-pandemic time.
A survey of 1,513 attractions found it was driven by the return of international tourists and a boost to trips by schools. Most regions saw a rise of between 4% and 8%, although London precipitously rose by 26% as it held the lion’s share of foreign visitors. Visits to attractions in London were still 22% below their 2019 levels.
The Tower of London was top of the list, with 2.8 million visitors, the most visits to a paid-for attraction, down 6% on the total for 2011. Other events for paid-for attractions were placed by Kew Gardens and Chester Zoo at 2 million and 1.9 million respectively. In the same quarter, the British Museum was the most visited free attraction and had 5.8 million visitors, a rise of 42% on 2022 but still down 7% on 2019 figures. Big movers described in these visitors contrasting with the overall trend include dramatic increases at the Natural History Museum and Tate Modern.
It also emerged that museums and art galleries—two of the areas worst hit by the pandemic—had 20% more visitors in 2023. In addition, it showed that places of worship visits were up 19% and visitor heritage centres by 14%.
