| Figures for 2006, released by VisitScotland, revealed 7831 tourists visited the cathedral on High Street in 2006, up from 4147 the previous year, making it the 14th most popular church surveyed by the tourism board.
But in terms of enticing tourists to Dundee, the cathedral falls just outside the city’s top 10 tourist attractions in 11th place.
Camperdown Country Park was the most popular, with an estimated 390,000 visitors, up 5.4% on 2005 figures. Dundee Contemporary Arts, which attracted 272,692 tourists, was in second place despite falling in popularity by 2.5%.
The outdoors proved popular with tourists with Monikie Country Park, Crombie Country Park and Camperdown Wildlife Centre rounding up the top five. Sensation — the Dundee science centre, Discovery Point and the Mills Observatory also had top 10 places.
Lindsey Mowat, Press Officer at VisitScotland, said, “People are coming to Scotland for a range of reasons. We get ‘set-jetters’ looking at sites like Rosslyn Chapel, that have featured in films, but others come to trace their family tree, to study the architecture or for spiritual reasons.”
VisitScotland’s figures show 1,150,483 people visited churches across Scotland in 2005-06 a 15.1% increase from the 999,803 who visited for the previous period.
Catherine Lawson, who collates the cathedral visitor numbers said, “We don’t tend to ask people why they come in. For some it’s a love of churches, some enjoy the history and others have drifted from the church but retain a strong connection and it’s that which draws them back.” |
