“We are expecting a fall back, 2008 was a spectacularly good year. The main thing is if it does fall back we don’t want it to fall back below the 2007 figure (2.1m).”

NML had a target to get 2m visitors through its doors by 2010, but is now aiming for 3m annual visits by 2011.

Earlier this week, Andrew Pearce, chairman of the now disbanded Friends of NML, claimed some of NML’s exhibitions had become so dumbed down they were starting to resemble “Disneyland”.

Speaking prior to Mr Pearce’s criticism, Dr Fleming explained how NML would continue to increase visitor numbers.

“We will do that by being a lively organisation with lively programming,” he said.

“We are more inclusive than we had been and less elitist than we had been.

“We do see ourselves as performing an educational function.”

He hopes the new Museum of Liverpool will become NML’s busiest visitor attraction.

The three-storey museum will showcase more than 6,000 objects currently in store, many of which have never been on public display before.

They include an Overhead Railway carriage and the early 19th-century Lion steam locomotive.

“The Overhead Railway carriage will be the centre piece of the port gallery that will explore the exoticism of the greatest port in the world.”

There will also be a section on The Beatles, which Dr Fleming claims will “give the Beatles back to Liverpool”.

“We want to tell the story of why The Beatles could only have come from Liverpool, it was not an accident that the greatest cultural phenomenon came from this city.

“We believe it is the biggest new museum building in this country in 100 years, and it will be the world’s only museum that is devoted to a single city. Liverpool’s is such an extraordinary story that it deserves it.”

davidbartlett