Tourist Attractions See Growth – Reaffirming the trend for Brits to ‘Stay-cation’

4th September 2009

The top ten most visited tourist attractions in Greater Manchester all saw an increase in the number of visitors in 2008.

The figures, released by Visit Manchester, also show that the total number of day visitors to the city – including UK/domestic tourism - has grown slightly from 90.9m to 93.4m.

This growth is despite the number of international visitors to the city dropping from 971,000 to 886,000 – a trend seen across the UK’s tourism cities. The statistics reaffirm the growing trend for Brits to ‘stay-cation’ with the recession limiting the number of overseas holidays.

The top ten tourist attractions in Greater Manchester by visitor number were:

MOSI (The Museum of Science & Industry) 852,262 visitors
The Lowry 841,496 visitors
Manchester Art Gallery 394,205 visitors
Manchester United FC Museum 326,654 visitors
Bolton Museum, Aquarium & Archive 309,865 visitors
Urbis 262,114 visitors
Manchester Museum 244,265 visitors
Imperial War Museum North 238,794 visitors
Manchester Airport Aviation Viewing Park 228,000 visitors
Manchester Cathedral 209,250 visitors

The attractions which saw the biggest rise in the number of visitors since 2007 were: Manchester Cathedral (+29%), Manchester United FC Museum (+24%) and MOSI (+21%).

Paul Simpson, managing director of Visit Manchester, the tourist board for Greater Manchester, said: “The tourism industry is still incredibly valuable to the city. It was worth £5.52bn in 2008 – and whilst this was down slightly from the previous year, tourism remains a key business sector. What has proved invaluable this year is the number of major sports events and conferences held in the city. They generate a significant amount of visitor spend and help increase Manchester’s profile on the world stage. Bidding for these types of events and conferences will remain a high priority for the tourist board over the coming months.”

ENDS

For more information:

Marketing Manchester

Tel: 0161 237 1010

Email: press@marketingmanchester.com