Huge surge in visitors to Liverpool's 08 attractions

Feb 16 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

TENS of thousands more people attended Liverpool’s theatres, galleries and museums in the first month of Capital of Culture year than in January 2007.

The city’s attractions are experiencing a significant increase in visitor numbers as the “08 effect” begins to bite.

In the case of the Maritime Museum, visitor numbers have doubled – a feat repeated at the Tate – while the Walker gallery has seen 56% more people through its doors.

For the Tate alone the 102% increase amounted to 40,000 extra visitors.

Laura Johnson, spokesperson for NML, which incorporates Mersey museums including the Walker, said: “Overall our visitor figures have increased by almost 42% on last January.

“Thousands have flocked to see Ben Johnson in residence at the Walker Art Gallery, who has drawn massive crowds to watch him complete the amazing Liverpool Cityscape painting.

“Over at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Magical History Tour, the exhibition which charts 800 years of Liverpool’s history, has helped contribute to a 90% increase in visitors to that venue.

“At the National Conservation Centre, a rise in visitor figures of 51% on Jan 2007 has been assisted by the exhibition Now These Days Are Gone, a collection of photographs taken of The Beatles behind-the-scenes during the filming of Help!

“The momentum does not appear to be decreasing.”

In theatre, the Everyman and Playhouse is reporting that its latest production, the Chekov reworking Three Sisters on Hope Street, which ends tonight, has already doubled its financial target and exceeded its expected sales by 20% so far.

Marketing manager Sarah Ogle said: “Looking at sales for our spring/summer season, we’re up 62% on last year, which is certainly beyond our expectations.

“Our website too has had a quite considerable increase in visitors and hits are up 51% from this time last year.

“It’s fantastic, it means that people are trying a lot of different things.”

Sales at the Philharmonic were reported to be up by more than 2,500 tickets on January 2007 despite a similar amount of concerts.

Jayne Garrity, at the Philharmonic Hall, said: “We met our box office targets for the financial year before Christmas – last year we were into January before we did so.”

Iain Christie, marketing manager for the Royal Court, said: “2008 is a big year for Liverpool and for us. We are looking forward to a bumper year for people attending the theatre.

“The Royal Court is celebrating its 70th birthday in 2008 and we are running plays throughout the year that we hope will bring people out from in front of the television to see some live entertainment.

“We have already had a very successful start to the year with Willy Russell’s Stags and Hens.

“Our programme is largely aimed at the people of Liverpool and I think that most Liverpudlians want to get involved with the Cultural celebrations.”

Echo Arena Liverpool has already attracted 50,000 people through the doors since its January opening and is projected to bring £100m to the Merseyside economy in 2008 alone.