New figures have shown Ayrshire and Arran’s visitor attractions have enjoyed a highly successful start to the year, with strong increases in visitor numbers.

Reporting for the period January to April 2006, the latest Scottish Visitor Attraction Barometer figures show a 51% increase in April’s visitor numbers compared to April of last year for Ayrshire & Arran; the highest increase across Scotland. Similarly, visitor numbers for the period January to April increased by 16% on the same period last year, the second highest across Scotland.

Scotland as a whole saw an increase of 12.6% for the month of April, and an increase of 1.5% for the period January to April.

Area Director for VisitScotland Prestwick, Catriona Mackie said; “This is a brilliant result for Ayrshire & Arran and shows attractions in the area have performed exceptionally well during the first quarter of 2006.”

Ayrshire & Arran also has two visitor attractions within the top 20 paid-for attractions for Scotland, a new survey has revealed.

The annual Visitor Attraction Monitor compiled for VisitScotland by the independent research body the Moffat Centre, represents data from just under 700 visitor attractions across the country. The Burns National Heritage Park came eighth and Culzean Castle and Country Park twelfth in the top 20 paid-for attractions in Scotland.

It was found that across the whole of Scotland, in total more people visited Scotland’s visitor attractions in 2005 than the previous year, an increase of 2.8 percent.

Both results show that the area has a first class visitor attraction offering.

For further information, please contact:
Karen Leithead, External Relations Executive
VisitScotland
Tel: 01750 23818
Email: Karen.Leithead@visitscotland.com