VISITOR attractions close to V&A Dundee are reaping the benefits of the only V&A museum outside London, according to new research.

A total of 341,265 people visited the £80 million museum, which opened in September, in its first three months, and many also explored other places in the city.

Visitor numbers at Discovery Point – adjacent to the V&A – were up 40.5% and there was a 31.2% rise in visitors to The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum. Verdant Works saw visitor numbers rise by 23.8%; the University of Dundee Botanic Garden by 21.5%; the Frigate Unicorn was 14.0% up and 3.6% more visitors went to Broughty Castle Museum, almost five miles away.

Experts from Glasgow Caledonian University’s Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism analysed the performance of 680 free and paid tourist sites for its 2018 Visitor Attraction Monitor (VAM).

Overall, the number of visits fell by 0.5% to almost 61.5 million, largely due to indoor attractions being affected by record-breaking temperatures over the summer months.

The report showed the National Museum of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle remain Scotland’s most popular attractions, with 2,227,773 and 2,111,578 visitors respectively in 2018, up 2.9% and 2.3% on the previous year.

Moffat Centre director Professor John Lennon said: “There is no doubt visitors are seeing more of the country and the benefits of tourism are being spread across Scotland.

“There’s been a lot of interest in the V&A but that interest has spread out and has had an impact on nearby attractions, like Discovery Point, the McManus Art Gallery and the Botanic Gardens.

“It has brought tourists to a part of the country that was not really on the visitor map.

“Stirling Castle is up – which takes a bit of pressure off of Edinburgh. Visitors are getting out to Urquhart [Castle], which is a good thing, and we are seeing a growth in Loch Ness cruises.”

The Moffat Centre’s annual VAM research, now in its 20th year, is the most comprehensive analysis of visitor trends in Scotland.

It showed that alongside the National Museum of Scotland, the top 10 free attractions include the Scottish National Gallery, Glasgow’s Riverside Museum and the Gretna Green Famous Blacksmiths Shop.

Joining Edinburgh Castle in the top 10 paid attractions are Edinburgh Bus Tours, Stirling Castle, Urquhart Castle, The Scotch Whisky Experience and cruises on Loch Ness by Jacobite.

Philip Long, director of V&A Dundee, said: “It is wonderful to see more evidence of the positive impact V&A Dundee is having on the city and the surrounding area.

“Dundee and across the wider Tayside region have a very great deal to offer visitors from across Scotland, the UK and much further afield, and we look forward to welcoming many more people to see our next exhibition, Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt, which opens on April 20.”