People are still prepared to spend money on a great day out despite the continued impact of the cost of living crisis, with the National Trust’s Annual Report revealing a 5% increase in visitor numbers to their pay for entry places in 2023/24 compared with the previous year.
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 were 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 could commit to annual subscriptions. Young families, which have been hardest hit by the 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: [i"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.”[/i]
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.
