London attractions' pulling power undimmed

Figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) show the continued pulling power of London's visitor attractions. Attractions in the British capital occupied all of the top ten places, in terms of visitor numbers, for 2008.

The British Museum stands top of the podium with nearly six million visitors in 2008, an increase of 9.5 % on the previous year. The Tate Modern bagged second spot with 4,862,581 visitors last year and the National Gallery took bronze with 4,382,614 visitors. Admission to the permanent exhibitions at all three visitor attractions is free.

Visitors to London can enjoy a flexible audio downloadable of tour that features all three of the 'Big Three' thanks to Walk Talk Tours. Enjoy a walk from the National Gallery to the British Museum, which takes in other must see parts of the capital such as Leicester Square and Covent Garden. To hear an audio sample from The Museums, Galleries & Performing Arts, London travel guide please click here.

Each Walk Talk Tour London audio tour is composed of commentary points. Listeners hear about the personalities and history associated with a particular attraction. Listeners then receive directions which guide them to their next commentary point. In addition each podcast guided tour comes complete with a free downloadable map to help listeners get from A to B. Unlike a conventional guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour London audio guide can stop, start and replay again any part of the commentary. If there's an attraction you want to visit, you can go and explore it and then resume your tour when you're done.

The Tower of London, in sixth place, was the highest placed fee paying visitor attraction in the survey with 2,161,095 customers. Independent minded travellers can hear about the Tower's rich heritage with The City & The Tower London iPod travel guide and The City & South Bank Circular podcast guided tour.

Each Walk Talk Tour London city walking tour represent excellent value at just £5.95 a piece. What's more, if you purchase two tours simultaneously you will receive a twenty per cent discount.

All of the Walk Talk Tour London city guides are available in English, French, German and Spanish. All of the tours - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular mp3 guided tour - can be completed in two hours, though listeners can take as long or as little as they wish to explore the sights en route.

The photograph above shows the entrance to The British Museum. The picture was taken when an exhibition entitled The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army was attracting huge numbers of visitors to the Museum. The exhibiton finished in April 2008.