UK tourism spots boosted by TV shows

Television, radio and films helped boost visits to main tourist attractions in the UK last year, according to new figures.

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva) said its members had 0.38 per cent more visits to tourist spots in 2010 than in 2009.

Neil MacGregor’s BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects and the corresponding display of the objects across the permanent galleries helped the British Museum maintain its position at the top of the Alva visits’ list.

The entrance-free museum recorded more than 5.84 million visits last year – nearly five per cent more than in 2009.

Visits to London’s Natural History Museum rose more than 13 per cent to 4.64 million last year helped by the broadcast of the BBC2 behind-the-scenes series Museum of Life.

The National Trust property Antony, in Cornwall, used as the location for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie, saw visitor figures increase from 25,000 to almost 100,000. Alva added that the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, south London, gained national coverage when Johnny Depp filmed there at the end of the year for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film and expects to gain more profile in May 2011 when the film is released.

Other Alva properties which enjoyed a good 2010 included Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden (with visits up 21.7 per cent); the Dunham Massy National Trust property near Altrincham, Greater Manchester (up 27 per cent) and St Peter and St Paul Church at Albury, Surrey, (up 27.7 per cent).

Almost four in five Alva members said they expected this spring’s royal wedding to lead to an increase in visitor figures while – overall – 90 per cent forecast their own visitor numbers to rise this year or stay the same.

The Alva figures come shortly after VisitBritain announced cutbacks in overseas marketing.

Alva said it feared that “vital investment required (in tourism) may not materialise” and that it remained “concerned about the optimum marketing of Britain”.