Revamped attractions boost visitor numbers by four million

NEW and improved attractions across Scotland helped lure more than 47 million visitors last year – a rise of four million on the previous 12 months.

The advent of the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow, the Burns Birthplace Museum in Ayrshire and the reopening of the refurbished Royal Museum building in Edinburgh have all been credited with the boom.

And a further surge is expected for this year with the impact of the giant pandas at Edinburgh Zoo and the reopening of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Last year’s boom was in sharp contrast to 2010, when tourism suffered from two extended periods of bad weather at either end of the year, with visitor numbers down 0.3 per cent on 2009.

Experts at Glasgow Caledonian University, who compiled the figures, say free admissions were the winners last year, attracting more than twice as many visitors as paid-for attractions, such as those run by Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland. The National Museum of Scotland, which includes the revamped Royal Museum, which reopened in July, leap-frogged Edinburgh Castle to become the nation’s top attraction last year with 1.49 million visitors. The castle came second, pulling in 1.3 million visitors.

Third place was claimed by Glasgow’s new Riverside Museum, which showcases the city’s vast transport collection. It attracted 1.06 million visitors, despite only opening in June.

Although the National Galleries of Scotland suffered a 4.5 per cent drop at its sites in the capital, Edinburgh’s other leading attractions performed strongly, with St Giles’ Cathedral up 19.9 per cent and the Royal Botanic Garden up 11.8 per cent.

Professor John Lennon, director of the university’s Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism, said: “The Scottish tourism industry continues to develop and we see positive trends.”

Scotland’s top 10 visitor attractions in 2011

1. National Museum of Scotland: 1,494,728: +141 per cent.

2. Edinburgh Castle (paid admission) 1,302,825: +7.6 per cent.

3. Riverside Museum: 1,068,986 (new attraction)

4. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum: 981,787: -8.3 per cent.

5. National Galleries of Scotland: 925,575: -4.5 per cent.

6. St Giles’ Cathedral: 851,375: +19.9 per cent.

7. Royal Botanic Garden (Edinburgh): 790,545: +11.8 per cent.

8. Gretna Green’s Blacksmith’s Shop: 723,576: -4.4 per cent.

9. Gallery of Modern Art (Glasgow): 606,989: 23.7 per cent.

10.Edinburgh Bus Tours (paid admission) 554,117: +6.8 per cent.