British Museum had 6.4m visitors

The popularity of our best loved attractions and the importance of tourism to the UK – it’s the 5th biggest industry and the 3rd largest employer, generating £127 billion per year.”

The new visitor centre at Stonehenge helped the monument attract more than 1.34 million visits, an 8.4 per cent rise on the previous year.

Bernard Donoghue, director of ALVA, called on politicians to recognise the importance of tourism in their election manifestos.

He said: “I am delighted that our members figures are going from strength to strength – reflecting the significant role they play in the economy.

He said he was confident that figures will rise again this year, boosted by new exhibitions including Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the V&A from March 14 and

Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon at the National Portrait Gallery, which opens on July 2. First World War centenary commemorations, including the sea of poppies at the

Tower of London, and the Matisse exhibition at the Tate Modern helped attract record tourist numbers to the UK last year, figures revealed on Monday.

More than 123 million visitors passed through the doors of some of the most famed attractions in 2014, a record 6.5 per cent increase on the previous year.

 

The first half of 2014 was the most popular period ever for tourism into the UK, according to the Office of National Statistics. Tourists made 16.41 million trips to the UK

between January and June, an 8% rise on the same period in 2013. Spending by foreign residents in the UK has reached £8.92bn so far this year.

In June, Chester Zoo will be opening Islands, which will recreate the tropical environments of six South East Asian islands, and is said to be the biggest new zoo development in Europe.

There were 119 million visitor numbers to ALVA properties in 2013, 92 million in 2012 and 97 million in 2011.

Top ten Alva member attractions for 2014, with overall number of visitors and the percentage change on previous year:

1 British Museum                               6, 695,213 (0.0)

2 The National Gallery                    6, 416,724 (6.4)

3 Southbank Centre                        6, 255,799 (–)

4 Tate Modern                                   5, 785,427 (18.0)

5 Natural History Museum          5, 388,295 (1.0)

6 Science Museum                          3, 356,072 (1.2)

7 V&A South Kensington             3, 180,450 (-3.3)

8 Tower of London                        3, 075,950 (6.0)

9 Somerset House                         2, 463,201 (2.7)

10 The Library of Birmingham 2, 414,860 (–)