The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Scotland top in Britain in terms of visitor numbers
TOURISM: Number of people visiting attractions north of the border up by 15% on last year
Scotland outperformed the rest of the UK last year with an annual increase of more than 15% in visitors to its attractions, new figures show.
The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva) said Scottish destinations welcomed a total of 15 million visitors in 2016, giving them one of their best years on record.
Across the UK, visitor numbers were up 7.2% on 2015 figures, meaning that more than 130 million visits were made to the top 241 Alva sites around the country.
The most popular attraction north of the border – and the 15th most visited in the UK – was the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which opened 10 new galleries in 2016. A total of 1.8 million visitors passed through its doors last year.
This was closely followed by Edinburgh Castle, in 16th position with 1,778,548 visitors. It was the mostvisited paid-for attraction in Scotland, with a 13% increase mirroring the same increase in international visitors flying into the city’s airport.
Other notable increases in Scotland were the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, which saw a 29% increase and rose 11 places after attracting 285,688 visitors.
Urquhart Castle at Drumnadrochit, near Inverness, saw a 14% increase and Glasgow’s Riverside Museum enjoyed an 11% boost in visitor numbers.
Alva director Bernard Donoghue said: “Like the 2015 figures, Scotland has continued to outperform the rest of the UK with a substantial increase in their visitor numbers.
“2016 was a great year for Scottish tourism – proving that Scotland is reaping the benefits of significant capital investment in attractions and creative programming by its institutions.”