Number of visits to the Tower of London in England 2010-2021

Total visits to the Tower of London in England were substantially lower in 2020 and 2021 over the previous years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While the visitor volume to that tourist attraction totaled nearly three million in 2019, it dropped sharply to 448 thousand in 2020, before rising to 526 thousand in 2021.

Visitors to heritage sites in England during COVID-19

Despite the dramatic drop in visitor numbers at the Tower of London following the global health crisis, the attraction maintained its position as the most visited among castles, forts, and monument sites in England in 2020. Meanwhile, due to the pandemic, visitors to English Heritage sites fell from 6.24 million in 2019/2020 to less than two million in 2020/2021.

Most visited tourist attractions in London

London is home to some of the most well-known visitor attractions in the United Kingdom. In 2021, the most visited tourist attraction in the UK’s capital city was the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew Gardens), welcoming nearly two million attendees. Focusing on zoos and wildlife parks in London, the number of visits to the ZSL London Zoo reached a total of nearly 700 thousand in 2021, making it the most popular zoo in the city that year. While attendance at the Royal Botanic Gardens and the ZSL London Zoo grew in 2021, some of London’s attractions, such as the Tate Modern, reported fewer visitors in 2021 than in the previous year.