9/5/2008Glasgow tops attraction list - Kelvingrove beats Edinburgh Castle for second year
GLASGOW'S Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum has beaten Edinburgh Castle to be Scotland's top tourist attraction.
The West End attraction is the busiest in the country for the second year running, figures out today show.
Kelvingrove, which has had a £27million facelift, pulled in 2.23m visitors last year.
The free attraction reopened in July 2006 after a three-year refurbishment programme. More than 1.2m people visited Edinburgh Castle last year, meaning it holds on to its own crown as the most visited pay-to-see attraction in Scotland.
The annual VisitScotland figures also revealed a record 45.7m people visited Scottish attractions in 2007 – an increase of 1.8% on the previous year.
VisitScotland chief executive Philip Riddle said: "Scotland has some of the best visitor attractions in the world, attracting millions of visitors from home and abroad each year.
"It is encouraging to see individual attractions performing well, along with overall growth in the sector for 2007. This builds on consistent growth over the last few years.
"Visitor attractions are a crucial part of our tourism sector and will play a significant role in helping the industry achieve its shared ambition of 50% growth in tourism revenue by 2015."
Edinburgh Zoo and Edinburgh Bus Tours followed the castle as Scotland's top paid-for attraction.
In fourth and fifth place were Glasgow Science Centre and Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park, near Stirling.
The busiest free attractions after Kelvingrove were the National Gallery of Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland, both in Edinburgh.
They were followed by the World Famous Old Blacksmith's Shop Centre in Gretna Green and the capital's Royal Botanic Garden.
Tourism minister Jim Mather said the figures were great news for Scotland.
He said: "We want to the show the world that the whole of Scotland has something to offer, and these figures show that this approach is beginning to pay off."
The West End attraction is the busiest in the country for the second year running, figures out today show.
Kelvingrove, which has had a £27million facelift, pulled in 2.23m visitors last year.
The free attraction reopened in July 2006 after a three-year refurbishment programme. More than 1.2m people visited Edinburgh Castle last year, meaning it holds on to its own crown as the most visited pay-to-see attraction in Scotland.
The annual VisitScotland figures also revealed a record 45.7m people visited Scottish attractions in 2007 – an increase of 1.8% on the previous year.
VisitScotland chief executive Philip Riddle said: "Scotland has some of the best visitor attractions in the world, attracting millions of visitors from home and abroad each year.
"It is encouraging to see individual attractions performing well, along with overall growth in the sector for 2007. This builds on consistent growth over the last few years.
"Visitor attractions are a crucial part of our tourism sector and will play a significant role in helping the industry achieve its shared ambition of 50% growth in tourism revenue by 2015."
Edinburgh Zoo and Edinburgh Bus Tours followed the castle as Scotland's top paid-for attraction.
In fourth and fifth place were Glasgow Science Centre and Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park, near Stirling.
The busiest free attractions after Kelvingrove were the National Gallery of Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland, both in Edinburgh.
They were followed by the World Famous Old Blacksmith's Shop Centre in Gretna Green and the capital's Royal Botanic Garden.
Tourism minister Jim Mather said the figures were great news for Scotland.
He said: "We want to the show the world that the whole of Scotland has something to offer, and these figures show that this approach is beginning to pay off."