Chester Zoo tops list of visitor attractions in North West

Liverpool World Museum

Chester Zoo was the most visited attraction in the North West with 1.9m visitors last year.

It was the 13th most visited attraction in the UK according to the latest figures.

But the arrival of the Terracotta Warriors helped visitor numbers to Liverpool’s World Museum jump by 111%.

The World Museum was the most-visited English museum outside London in 2018.

According to the figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva), the World Museum was visited by 1.4 million people in 2018 – 610,000 of whom saw the ancient Chinese statues.

It was 23rd on the overall national list taking it above Tate Britain and London Zoo.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery also saw a big increase in numbers due to the visit by “Dippy” the Diplodocus.

The replica dinosaur skeleton was in Birmingham for five months as part of its three-year tour from the Natural History Museum.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery had 832,000 visitors in 2018 – up 38% on the previous year.

Tate Modern, which hosted major exhibitions by Picasso and Modigliani last year, came top of the overall list for the first time since it opened in 2000 overtaking the British Museum.

However, last summer’s heatwave and the World Cup led to a fall in numbers at many outdoor attractions.

The Eden Project in Cornwall; ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire; Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire; and Chatsworth House, Derbyshire all saw a fall in visits.

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