The British Museum is the UK's most popular tourist spot for the ninth year running, leading a top ten made up of London attractions.
The museum had 6,820,686 visitors in 2015 according to the latest rankings from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva). It is followed by the National Gallery and the Natural History Museum along with London stalwarts such as the Science Museum, the Tower of London and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
"More people visited the V&A, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum combined than visited Venice," said Alva director Bernard Donoghue.
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The country's top tourist attraction outside the capital is the Library of Birmingham, which comes in at number 11 with almost two million visitors.
Edinburgh Castle is the most popular tourist spot outside England, with 1,568,508 visitors, while the National Museum of Scotland and Scottish National Gallery also make it into the top 20.
The good news for budget-conscious tourists is that two thirds of the top 30 attractions are free of charge, including nine of the top ten.
Top 30 tourist attractions in the UK
- British Museum
- National Gallery
- Natural History Museum
- Southbank Centre
- Tate Modern
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Science Museum
- Somerset House
- Tower of London
- National Portrait Gallery
- Library of Birmingham
- Chester Zoo
- Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
- Westminster Abbey
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- St Paul's Cathedral
- British Library
- Edinburgh Castle
- National Museum of Scotland
- Scottish National Gallery
- Stonehenge
- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
- Tate Britain
- ZSL London Zoo
- Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
- Roman Baths & Pump Room, Bath
- Riverside Museum, Glasgow
- IWM London
- Royal Academy of Arts
- RHS Garden, Wisley
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