Traveling data show visitors flock to London attractions

London, March 27 (Xinhua) -- London's visitor attractions have welcomed some 67.64 million people, which is nearly the equivalent of the total population of Britain, according to statistics released by the Association of Leading Visitor attractions (ALVA) Wednesday.

The news comes the day after TripAdvisor's online community hailed London as the world's best-rated destination in the 2019 Traveller's Choice Awards.

ALVA report showed that with all the top 10 attractions of Britain being based in London, the capital has seen a yearly increase of 3.37 percent in visitors in 2018.

It also revealed that the most visited attraction in the UK was Tate Modern, with nearly 5.87 million visits in 2018.

The British Museum saw a slight decrease of 1.3 percent to second place at close to 5.83 million, as the public had the opportunity to see some of its objects outside of London in 2018 through major touring exhibitions.

Seeing a 9 percent increase, the National Gallery remained in third place with nearly 5.74 million visits after staging the works of the "father of impressionism" in Monet Architecture, the first exhibition devoted to Claude Monet's relationship with architecture.

Bernard Donoghue, Director of ALVA, commented: "2018 was a great year for London's attractions. Visitors from home and abroad flocked to London's world class cultural assets. In fact ALVA's London members welcomed the equivalent of the population of the UK. Tourism is such a major part of the London economy, and a huge employer, and we know that overseas visitors say that our attractions are their number one reason to visit the UK."

Laura Citron, CEO of London Partners, which is the Mayor of London's official promotional agency, said "This data shows London's world-famous attractions continuing to entice and captivate visitors from all over the world."

She was optimistic about the year ahead, believing visitors would be attracted to visit the city by some major events such as the Cricket World Cup, city-wide projects like the magical Illuminated River display, Van Gogh exhibition at Tate Britain and Mary Poppins on stage.