Blackpool Pleasure Beach has topped a survey of Britain’s most popular free visitor destinations with six million visitors in 2005 according to VisitBritain’s latest Visits to Visitor Attractions Survey.

The research took in 2,111 attractions around England and showed that seven of the top 10 most visited free attractions surveyed were museums and art galleries in central London.

The British Museum was the second most visited free attraction with 4.5 million visits while Tate Britain witnessed the largest increase in visitors last year, up 60 per cent on 2004 figures.

Leading paid entry attractions included the BA London Eye and the Xscape Castleford Centre in joint first place with 3.3 million visitors, followed by the Tower of London, with 1.9 million visitors.

According to the figures, after the 7 July bombings, visits to some London attractions dropped by as much as 30 per cent. However, according to a separate survey, the London Attractions Monitor, which was published by Visit London in February this year, overall attendances were only down by 5 per cent by December 2005, indicating that visitors were beginning to return to many attractions.

England marketing director at VisitBritain, Michael Bedingfield, said: “Our research shows that Britons take 111 million trips in this country – well ahead of the 66.5 million they take abroad. I’m delighted by these results which prove that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get out and enjoy England.” Details: www.enjoyengland.com