North Tyneside attractions listed among the most popular in the North East

VisitEngland, the official tourist board for England, recently published the latest results of its Annual Survey of Visits to Visitor Attractions for 2016.

The results show visitor trends in both paid and free attractions across the country, and include national and regional breakdowns of their data.

Two North Tyneside attractions managed to make it into the top 21 lists for the North East, one in the most visited free attractions and the other in the most visited paid attractions.

However, both attractions have seen a significant decrease in visitor numbers since 2015.

The Stephenson Railway Museum, in Wallsend, was listed at the 11th most visited free attraction in the region, with 34,601 visitors in 2016.

But, that shows a decrease of 22.2 per cent since 2015, which saw almost 10,000 more visitors (44,457 in total).

The 15th most visited paid attraction in the North East last year, with 49,880 visitors, was Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths and Museum.

This, again, shows a decrease since 2015, but not as significant, with only a 4.7 per cent change and a 2,145 drop in visitors from 52,025.

The museum, with an entry price of £5.95, was also among one of the cheaper options on the list.

The average price for attractions on the list is £7.55.

Segedunum, which translates to ‘strong fort,’ was originally built to guard the east end of Hadrian’s Wall during the Roman Empire.

The fort housed 600 soldiers and stood for just under 300 years, according to the museum’s website.

Meanwhile, the Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields is dedicated to the days of the steam railway and the work of pioneers George and Robert Stephenson.

The brothers spent 20 years in North Tyneside developing railways and locomotives on a global scale.

Despite the drop in visitors for 19 attractions out of the 41 listed, the statistics also revealed that, on a whole, the North East has seen an eight per cent increase in visitor numbers in 2016, the highest increase seen in the whole of England.