12% day tripper boost to National Trust sites reveals new visitor trend

The 12% boost in paying visitors, an increase of 332,000 in numbers, reflects a trend seen across the tourist attraction sector. People are prioritising paying on the day for special days out, yet challenging external conditions contributing to rising inflation, higher costs and a large drop in household discretionary spend mean that they are finding it hard to commit to annual subscriptions or memberships.

Hilary McGrady, Director General of the National Trust, said: “It’s really heartening that people still want to spend time in and support amazing cultural and natural places, whether that’s immersing themselves in art or wandering through our gardens and woodlands. We know the cost-of-living crisis is still biting and we’ll keep doing more to give everyone a great day out. We’ve designed a new Explorer Pass, and are offering free passes where we can, for people who can’t otherwise afford to visit the places in our care.”

As a result of these difficult economic conditions, National Trust memberships reduced by 89,000 to 2.62 million memberships (5.38 million members) in 2023/24 as more people moved to paying on the day. This was largely due to a decrease in new recruits at a time when fewer households can commit to annual subscriptions. Young families, which have been hardest-hit by cost of living pressures, were the least likely to renew their membership in 2023/24. However there are early signs in the current 2024/25 financial year that these pressures could be easing; as of the end of June 2024, National Trust memberships were up to 2.65 million (5.46 million members).

Bernard Donoghue, Director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, commented on the Trust’s findings in light of the visitor attraction sector as a whole: "The economic consequences of the pandemic coincided with a cost of living crisis; UK consumers have been making tactical decisions about how they spend their leisure pounds and leisure hours, and this caution continues. Our members have been reporting that there has been a rise in the number of visitors, particularly families, who have been opting for single entry tickets, rather than taking out memberships.”

However, members were also shown to be getting more out of their membership and visiting National Trust places more frequently than during the year prior, attracted by a year-round calendar of programming and events. Spending in shops and cafés was up compared with 2022/23 and the charity’s overall income continued to grow year-on-year.

As well as more people visiting its places the National Trust has also been able to take the collections in its care to wider audiences through an ambitious loans programme, with more than 1.3 million people visiting exhibitions with Trust loans this year.

The Annual Report highlights a strong year for heritage, with the acquisition of the former home of pioneering gardener Gertrude Jekyll, Munstead Woods, and £178 million dedicated to the conservation of historic buildings and collections. Major projects include the completion of a 24-year project to restore 13 Gideon tapestries, the Trust’s longest-ever conservation project, and rehang them at their historic home of Hardwick Hall. The Trust also continued its work to explore the history of places in its care in new ways with programming. Jewellery designer Anisha Parmar collaborated with Kedleston Hall to create ‘My Adornment is My Power’, an exhibition exploring heritage, identity and power through female adornment. Anisha worked with Kedleston’s colonial collection to create films, photographs and a display of historic jewellery juxtaposed with her own contemporary designs, celebrating and reclaiming South Asian history.

Hilary McGrady, Director General of the National Trust, continued: “In the last financial year we celebrated some fantastic projects at the National Trust, but these were set against the backdrop of multiple global conflicts, the continuing effects of climate change and acute financial pressures.

“The unprecedented response to the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree in September 2023 brought home just how much we value our natural heritage. We’ll continue doing everything we can to protect nature and fight climate change, and we’ll keep looking after the treasured and historic places in our care. We can’t do any of it alone, and I am so grateful to our many thousands of volunteers who donated over 3.6 million hours last year, and the generous members, donors, supporters and partners who make it all possible.”

£117.9 million of fundraising income was raised thanks to the generosity of individual donors, charitable trusts, grant funders, corporate partners and gifts in wills. Within this record fundraising year, £3 million was raised from second-hand bookshops, the equivalent of 60,000 hours of delicate collections conservation work. An anonymous gift enabled the creation of a Curatorial Development Programme to share knowledge across the Trust and create a bank of masterclasses for curators of the future.

Thanks in part to this fundraising, members and partner organisations, the Trust has been able to continue its work to make its places welcoming and accessible to all. £5.5 million was spent in 2023/24 on improving physical access for people with disabilities. The Trust also piloted accessible programming such as Paddle-Ability sessions at Shugborough, in partnership with Paddle UK, for people with both visible and hidden disabilities who might not usually have the chance to participate in paddling activities.

The BBC series Wild Isles, watched by 12.5 million viewers, offered the perfect opportunity to launch a national campaign for nature. Save Our Wild Isles, a partnership with the RSPB and WWF, demanded an immediate halt to the destruction of UK nature and urgent action for its recovery, and delivered the People’s Plan for Nature.

On the ground, the Trust exceeded its target to create and restore 25,000 hectares (61,777 acres) of new wildlife habitats by 2025. With a focus on employing nature-based solutions that can help address both the nature and climate crises, 18,568ha (45,882 acres) of restoration has been undertaken on peatland and internationally important wood pasture and parkland habitats, and 8,373ha (20690 acres) of new priority habitats such as flower rich grassland created.

In November 2023 the charity published a landmark new report “A Climate for Change” in which it outlined how it is adapting the historic and natural places in its care to withstand and thrive in a rapidly changing climate. The report explored issues such as heavier rainfall overwhelming historic guttering systems, leading to more problems with damp, and higher temperatures exacerbating humidity, providing niches for pests and diseases.

Within urban spaces where the vast majority of the UK’s population live, the Trust is on track to create 20 green corridors by 2030, linking cities with the countryside on their doorstep. In one corridor at Newcastle and Gateshead, the local community took part in a consultation on which activities they would like to see. They voted for an audio guide of the area’s history and sensory activities designed to help neurodivergent young people to explore the corridor.

Hilary McGrady continued: “We’re really working hard to ensure more people can access green space, and that they have the opportunity to immerse themselves in history and culture. The trends we are seeing underscore just how important these places are for people’s quality of life. We want everyone to have the chance to enjoy them.”