‘Staycations’ boost revenue at local attractions

Many UK tourists hotspots have managed to weather the worst of the economic downturn. In fact, many of these popular ‘staycation’ attractions have actually experienced an increase in visitor numbers and seem to be fairing better than many abroad destinations which have previously been more popular in the past.

Particularly, the Guinness Storehouse pulled in well over 1,000,000 visitors last year. This marks the first time that the center has ever had more than 1,000,000 visitors since its founding. A spokesperson for the Guinness Hop Store, Mark McGovern, stated that the company was enjoying one of their best years ever and that many of the visitors had been from Europe or the UK.

Likewise, Dublin Zoo saw a heavy rise in visitors for the 2009 tourist season. Veronica Chrisp, the head of marketing over at Dublin Zoo, said that since last year the zoo had catered to more than 900,000 visitors and saw an increase in revenue from past years as well.

Another notable UK attraction, Dublinia & the Viking World also pulled in an uncharacteristically large number of visitors. Despite having closed for half the season for repairs and remodels, the popular Viking attraction saw an increase in tourists visiting the newly redone exhibit.

Many other venues around the UK saw similar increases in numbers, in part due to many of the UK’s residents opting to forgo travel abroad this year to save money. The increase in number of ‘staycations’ and the rise in popularity of day trips over holidays abroad, no doubt played a part in the increased number of visits to well-known UK attractions.