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London attraction visitor number drop blamed on high costs

The high cost of travel, food and drink contributed to a fall in visitor numbers at London’s top tourist attractions last year.

The UK’s top ten attractions, including the British Museum and Tate Modern, saw nearly 1.7 million fewer visitors than the previous year as 64.2 million went to attractions in the capital out of a total of 130 million visits across the UK.

There was 7.3% increase in visitors across the UK’s top 238 attractions, with growth of almost 14% in Scotland.

Association of Leading Visitor Attractions director Bernard Donoghue said visiting London was too expensive for many people.

Donoghue said: “Economic factors have had an impact on UK visitors to central London, with associated evidence that the costs linked with a visit such as travel, food and drink have played an important part in deciding where to visit.

“Undoubtedly there have been some concerns about global security issues, but economic concerns are playing a more crucial part.

“Other travel issues such as the semi-closure of Waterloo station in August, as well as the inconsistent train service from south and south-east England also deterred people from travelling to London and encouraged people to visit attractions nearer to home.”

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