The Natural History Museum in London was the UK's most popular tourist attraction in 2025, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) has revealed.
In the visitor figures of its members for 2025, ALVA has reported a total 165 million visits to 409 ALVA sites last year.
This is an increase of 2 percent on the previous year, but a decline of 7 percent on the 170 million visits recorded in 2019.
As above, the most-visited attraction in the UK for the first time was the Natural History Museum, which saw a 13 percent increase in guests to 7,116,929 – an all-time record for any UK museum or gallery.
Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, said: "We are thrilled to be the UK’s most popular visitor attraction, smashing all previous records for the sector!
"These exceptional results reflect our unwavering focus on delivering a fantastic day out for every visitor, as well as the dedication of our colleagues who work tirelessly to create unforgettable experiences and world-class exhibitions."
He added: "Welcoming 7.1 million visitors demonstrates the enormous public appetite to engage with the wonders of the natural world and UK cultural attractions."
ALVA's figures for 2025
In second place on ALVA's list was the British Museum with 6,440,120 visitors, in third place – and first as the most-visited outdoor attraction – was Windsor Great Park, which welcomed 4,978,299 visitors.
In fourth place was Tate Modern with 4,514,266 visits, and in fifth was the National Gallery with 4,147,544. The top paid-for attraction was the Tower of London in ninth place with 2,817,852 visitors.
Outside of England, the most-visited free attraction in Scotland was the National Museum of Scotland with 2,318,305 visits, while St Fagans National Museum of History took the top spot in Wales with 570,207 visits.
In Northern Ireland, Titanic Belfast was the most-visited attraction with an 8 percent increase to 953,554 visitors.
Bernard Donoghue, director of ALVA, said: "In a time of unpredictable futures, uncertain economics, global insecurities, economic challenges, and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the UK public are more tactical than ever in deciding how they spend their leisure pounds and their leisure hours.
"Their expectations of a great visit are higher now than they have ever been," he added. "The competition has never been greater, the choice never so broad."
Last year was "financially the toughest since the pandemic and many of our members have had to undergo restructuring after the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions, lowering of the NI thresholds, and the above inflation increases in the national minimum wage, implemented in April 2025, alongside the pressures of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis", Donoghue said.
