In early 2000 the English Tourism Council convened an 'Attractions Round Table' of experts to consider the future of the attractions industry in England. This was preceded by a review by the Wales Tourist Board on key issues facing the industry and followed by a debate in Scotland orchestrated by the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions. The unifying theme to these three assessments was the growing concern that the attractions industry in the UK is facing challenging times.

A total of 79 new visitor attractions opened in the UK in 2000, including a series of National Lottery funded Millennium projects. According to the report Sightseeing in the UK 2000 - a joint publication of VisitScotland, Wales Tourist Board, Northern Ireland Tourist Board and English Tourism Council - a further 800 attractions invested nearly £400 million on various improvement projects with the majority of investment directed towards museums and galleries.

Despite this level of investment in both existing and new attractions, growth in the market is sluggish. With the exception of a handful of trend-bucking successes, the bulk of the market is in well-established heritage attractions and high-profile theme parks; these cannot be easily recreated.

The attractions are a vibrant component in the UK tourism industry. They employ over 100,000 people (56,000 full-time equivalents) and are visited by 6.5 million overseas tourists. The importance of visitor attractions to the tourist industry has been reaffirmed in the period post 11 September 2001 and the aftermath of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) crisis in the UK and other parts of northern Europe.

Other recent Mintel reports of relevance include:

- British on Holiday at Home, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, February 2002

- Days Out, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, April 2002

- Family Leisure Trends, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, March 2000

- Special Report, Holidays - Coping with a Crisis, 2002

- Special Report, Third Age Travel 2002.

- UK Cinema Market, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, May 2002

- UK Theme Parks, Leisure Intelligence - UK Report, July 2002