Scotland outperforms rest of UK amid sharp rise in attraction visit numbers, led by National Museum, Edinburgh Castle, National Galleries

Scotland’s visitor attractions enjoyed a 21 per cent increase in visits last year as many sites got back to pre-pandemic levels, figures have revealed.

The latest annual Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) members' visitor figures show that visits to Scotland's most popular sites increased by 21 per cent last year compared 2022, ahead of the UK average (19 per cent).

Scotland's top ten alone drew nearly 12 million visits (11,967,989) – compared with 9,859,702 in 2022. Scotland also had six of the 30 most visited attractions in the UK, compared with five for the rest of the UK outside London.

The National Museum of Scotland (NMS) remained the nation's most popular attraction in 12th overall, ahead of Edinburgh Castle (14th) and National Galleries Scotland (15th).

The National Museum of Scotland was the country's most visited attraction. Picture: NationalWorld

Scotland's most-visited free attraction, the NMS drew more than two million visits (2,186,8411) – 11 per cent up on 2022 and only 1 per cent below the pre-pandemic 2019 figure.

Edinburgh Castle, the most popular paid-for attraction, saw a 41 per cent increase to 1,904,723, while National Galleries enjoyed a record-breaking year with 1,836,057 visitors (up 44 per cent), thanks in part to its Grayson Perry exhibition.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (1,283,882); Riverside Museum in Glasgow (1,265,011); Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (the most popular outdoor attraction with 1,041,391); National War Museum, Edinburgh (773,213); Edinburgh Zoo (618,719); Glenfinnan Monument (540,853); and Stirling Castle (517,299) made up Scotland's top ten.

Bernard Donoghue, director of ALVA, said: "Scotland is outperforming the rest of the UK, which we've found consistently for at least ten years.

It's easy to spend a whole day at the National Museum of Scotland without even spending a penny. There's something for everyone, as the Edinburgh museum, which has free entry, has fascinating exhibits about the natural world, science and technology, history and archaeology and more.

"We are seeing strong, steady growth as part of the recovery post-covid and lockdown in Scotland and the recovery is spread really well across indoor and outdoor attractions.

"We are seeing really strong overseas visitors back into Scotland, particularly in the Central Belt, but also up into the Highlands."

ALVA's members are the UK's most popular, iconic and important museums, galleries, palaces, castles, cathedrals, zoos, historic houses, heritage sites, gardens and leisure attractions.

The total number of visits to ALVA sites in the UK last year was 146.6 million – 19 per cent more than the previous year (123.6 million), but still 11 per cent less than the 163.9 million visits in 2019. Indoor attractions saw a 23 per cent increase, with outdoor attractions up 2 per cent.

Top in the UK was the British Museum (5,820,860 visits) with a 42 per cent increase on 2022 attributed in part to the success of the China’s hidden century exhibition that ran from May to October.

The Natural History Museum (5,688,786, up 22 per cent); The Crown Estate, Windsor Great Park (5,487,856, down 3 per cent); Tate Modern (4,742,038, up 22 per cent) and Southbank Centre (3,193,966, up 8 per cent) made up the UK top five.In Scotland, significant increases included the Gallery of Modern Art – up 60 per cent to 510,936 visits, which they attributed to the success of Banksy's Cut and Run exhibition – and Glasgow Cathedral, which saw a 79 per cent increase to 457,541.

Stirling Castle and Urquhart Castle saw visitor numbers increase 24 per cent year on year, with Urquhart Castle welcoming 442,761 visitors.

Mr Donoghue said: "Following the Covid pandemic, 2022 was the first year of stability and last year was the first year of real growth. We are really optimistic that we are going in exactly the right direction. Every year it's really clear that Scotland punches above its weight, and always consistently reports some of the biggest growth in visitor numbers for any part of the UK.”