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Natural History Museum was the UK's most visited indoor attraction in 2022
We're the UK's most popular indoor attraction for the second year running.
Data collated by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions shows that most venues have seen a significant return to pre-pandemic visitor levels, with those in London benefitting the most.
A total of 4,654,608 people visited the Natural History Museum in South Kensington over the past year, up 196% on the previous year's numbers. This marks a return to pre-pandemic visitor numbers.
This makes the Museum the UK's most visited indoor attraction, and second most visited attraction over all after Windsor Great Park. The third slot went to the British Museum with 4,097,253 visitors, followed by the Tate Modern with 3,883,160 visitors and finally the Southbank Centre with 2,947,155 visitors.
The recovery was driven by domestic visitors. We recorded 3,300,000 domestic visitors in 2022 compared to 1,800,000 in 2019, reflecting a quicker bounce back post-pandemic in contrast to international audiences.
Dippy Returns: The Nation's Favourite Dinosaur was the Museum's most popular attraction in 2022 with over a million visitors.
With 1,060,813 visitors, the most popular exhibition was Dippy Returns: The Nation's Favourite Dinosaur. Having been on tour all around the country, Dippy made one final stop back at the Museum before going on a three-year loan to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry.
Museum Director Dr Doug Gurr says, 'We are thrilled to have become the UK's most popular indoor attraction for a second year running.'
'It is testament to our innovative and inspiring public programme of events and exhibitions which included Our Broken Planet: How We Got Here and Ways to Fix it, Dippy Returns and Wildlife Photographer of the Year as well as the dedication of our Visitor Experience team who work so hard to ensure visitors have a brilliant day out.'
This year visitors will be able to come face-to-face with one of the largest dinosaurs ever to exist. Our latest exhibition will bring the titanosaur Patagotitan mayorum to Europe for the first time, with the visiting public able to walk underneath and around the cast of the dinosaur that would have weighed 57 tonnes.
Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur opens on Friday 31 March, and you can pre-book your tickets here.
