Visit London's monthly Attraction Monitor has shown that visits to the capital's attractions returned to positive growth in January following seven months of falling attendance numbers.
During January, overall attendances were up +1.7% compared to the same month last year. Large and paid attractions witnessed the strongest growth, while visitor levels across small and free attractions continued to be lower than last year.
Early indications suggest that growth has continued in February.
James Bidwell, Chief Executive of Visit London, commented: "Following a tough second half to 2005, it is good to see this crucial sector returning to growth. This shows that the collective marketing efforts by the industry and Visit London have had a strong impact and cut through this accelerating recovery. This is a great start to the year and is line with our forecast of 1.2% growth for London tourism overall in 2006 which will see 26.6 million visitors to the capital. Promoting London's amazing range of museums, galleries and attractions will continue to be at the forefront of our marketing activity this year."
Two attractions explained the reasons for growth in January. Sharon Ament, Director of Public Engagement Group at the Natural History Museum said: "We have had a fantastic January and we're thrilled to have welcomed so many visitors through our doors already in 2006. We believe the recent resurgence was achieved partly as a result of some popular temporary exhibitions, such as Wildlife Photographer of the Year, which has received 76,000 visitors since it opened on 21 October, and our ice rink, which attracted over 114,000 skaters, many of whom came into the Museum. The Museum experienced a particularly busy half term this February, with 143,004 visitors."
Nancy Loader of the Geffrye Museum added: "Visitor figures for January showed an increase on the previous year for two main reasons: our popular Christmas Past exhibition was extended with hundreds of people attending the annual Farewell to Christmas event on the last weekend of the exhibition; and a special programme of events and marketing ensured a steady flow of visitors to The West Indian Front Room exhibition."
Visit London produces a range of factual and statistical data on the London tourism industry. The London Attraction Monitor can be viewed at visitlondon.com
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