§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people visited Britain's visitor attractions in 1998; and what is his estimate of the number of visitors in(a) 1999 and (b) 2000. [101159]
§ Janet AndersonIn 1998 there were 408 million visits to 6,164 tourist attractions across the UK.
My Department has no figures or forecasts for the number of visits to tourist attractions in 1999 or 2000. The British Tourist Authority has forecast that the number of holidays taken in the UK (by domestic or overseas visitors) will be over 10 per cent. higher in 2000 than in 1998. This suggests that there will be a strong demand for tourist attractions in 2000.