Dippy the dinosaur is returning to the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London following a successful UK-wide tour that attracted more than two million people.
Dippy is heading home to the NHM in summer 2022. The dinosaur cast embarked on its tour back in February 2018 and will remain at NHM through Christmas 2022.
More than two million people have visited Dippy on Tour at eight venues across the UK, bringing social and economic benefits to the regions.
“Our awe-inspiring goliath, Dippy, has smashed visitor records at every venue visited and brought a range of social and economic benefits to the surrounding communities,” said Doug Gurr, director of NHM.
Dippy brings socio-economic benefits
“Along with the joy of reaching new swathes of the UK population, the tour has aimed to highlight the importance of tackling the current planetary emergency, educating and inspiring visitors to explore the nature on their own doorsteps and become advocates for the planet.”
Dippy has been to every country in the UK in recent years, including Dorchester, Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cardiff, Rochdale and Norwich.
“For the last four years Dippy has been wowing audiences across all four corners of the UK. On his travels, he has helped to bring record numbers to museums across the country, boosted local economies and inspired a new generation of visitors,” said Arts Minister Lord Parkinson.
“Projects like this are so important to make sure our national collections can be seen and enjoyed by people wherever they live, so I congratulate the Natural History Museum for managing Dippy’s successful UK-wide tour.”
Dippy heading home next year
The tour was so successful that the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) referred to it as the ‘Dippy effect’ after the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery welcomed an additional 140,000 visitors who spent £4.2m in the city.
Dippy at the Dorset County Museum provided a £2.25 million boost to the local economy, while Belfast’s Ulster Museum reported its highest ever attendance for an exhibition in a single day
In Glasgow, Dippy on Tour was the most successful temporary exhibition in over a decade, while Newcastle and Cardiff welcomed 304,928 and 213,740 people to the attraction, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Natural History Museum is working to digitise 80 million objects in its collection, revealing that the project’s economic benefits are ‘at least ten times greater than the costs’.
Dippy on Tour is coming to an end on October 30, 2021 at Norwich Cathedral.
Images: NHM
