Visitor figures for the North East show a bounceback from the impact of the pandemic - but are still suffering from a form of ‘long Covid’, industry leaders say.
According to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), the total number of visits to ALVA sites in 2022 was 123.4m nationally – a 69% increase on 2021 when there were various Covid restrictions still in place. But the ALVA 2022 visits represent a decline of 23% on the numbers for 2019, with the organisation saying that many overseas visitors had still not returned to the UK after the pandemic.
The top performing North East venue in 2022 was Beamish Museum in County Durham, which comes in at number 33 in the national league, with 773,814 visitors, up 30% on 2021. Second was Durham Cathedral with 296,406 visitors last year, an 18% increase on 2021.
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Bernard Donoghue, director of ALVA said: “These figures show that visitors flocked back to their favourite places in 2022 after two difficult years. But we are still experiencing the tourism equivalent of Long Covid with many attractions still not back up to 2019 visitor levels due mainly to the absence of international visitors, notably from China and the Far East.
“The impact of Covid hasn’t ended. The cost of living crisis was also reflected in the annual figures for 2022, with attractions who offer free entry reporting the strongest year-on-year growth in visits.”
In the North East, three National Trust sites - Gibside, Cragside and Wallington top regional positions, alongside attractions that include Hardwick Park in County Durham, the Great North Museum in Newcastle and Hamsterley Forest.
ALVA said membership of museums, galleries and zoos “remained really quite strong” last year, showing that many people are “prioritising day visits above things like TV subscriptions”. It said demand for attractions continues to rise this year, partly due to the return of visitors from China.
The organisation’s data showed that tourism attractions with admission charges were finding it harder to grow visitor numbers at the same rate as those with free entry.
“They’ve only just recently been allowed to travel overseas,” Mr Donoghue said. “When the Chinese market comes back – as I confidently predict it will this year – I think we’ll see a really, really strong growth.”
The North East visitor economy contributed £5.2bn to the region’s economy in 2019 but the region still receives the lowest number of visitors and the lowest amount of visitor spend of any region in England.
There are hopes that the region’s visitor economy could be grown and last year the Government selected the North East to pilot a new tourism scheme which will see the NewcastleGateshead Initiative work with Visit Northumberland, Visit County Durham and all seven local authorities to develop the region as a must-visit destination.
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