Visitor Statistics

It's interesting to note that VisitBritain's latest survey of England’s visitor attractions has revealed that despite a wetter year than 2005, with August sunshine levels 11% below average, visitors made 196.5 million visits to attractions in 2006 - a +3% increase compared to the previous year.

In the North West, the average admission to attractions is currently £5.88 with urban attractions doing particularly well (+10%) in 2006, compared to coastal and rural attractions which were both down (-4%).

While Windermere Lake Cruises and Chester Zoo continue to hold first and second position, Tatton Park is the third most popular paid attraction in the region. Blackpool Pleasure Beach remains the region’s – and England’s – leading free attraction and The Lowry pushes Tate Liverpool back one place to third.

Proving the reason it was selected as 2008 European Capital of Culture, visitors to the Liverpool area are well served by free attractions – half of the region’s ten most popular attractions are in Merseyside.

Apparently, Chester Zoo was number 8 in the top ten most visited paid attractions in England as a whole.

One wonders what effect the wet weather will have on the statistics for 2007!