Fairly unsurprising, but worth noting, are the results of The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions annual hitlist.
The British Museum is once again the UK's top attraction, with 5.58 million visitors in 2012. This is the sixth year in a row that the Bloomsbury powerhouse has topped the chart. Anyone with a membership card knows that the hordes are not entirely composed of tourists — the spangly new member's room is constantly full to capacity, suggesting that a strong contingent of locals enjoy the museum's pleasures as well as the backpacked masses.
The entire top 5 comprises London attractions. Tate Modern moved from third to second place, with 5.32 million visitors. This represents a 9% increase on 2011 figures. With both Tate Modern and the British Museum both constructing extensions, it seems likely that these two will dominate the list for years to come.
The National Gallery (5.16 million), Natural History Museum (5.02 million) and V&A (3.23 million) make up the remainder of the top five.
While the overall trend was for an increase in visitors across venues (5.1%), many attractions recorded a dip. As ALVA notes:
"It was the weather rather than the Olympic and Paralympic Games that took its toll on full-year visitor numbers, and of the 30 attractions that saw a double-digit decline 27 of these were either gardens or outdoor attractions."
More analysis on the BBC, Guardian and Independent.
