V&A Dundee has welcomed half a million visitors to the museum since it opened, hitting the milestone almost six months earlier than expected. The 500,000th person to walk through the doors of Scotland’s first design museum was officially recorded on Saturday 30 March.
V&A Dundee, which opened on 15 September last year, has vastly exceeded original visitor estimates which forecast it would take 12 months to reach half a million visitors.
Surveys commissioned by V&A Dundee have found that visitors are being attracted from beyond the immediate Tayside region, with 36% from elsewhere in Scotland, 17% from the rest of the UK and 9% from overseas. Survey responses also show the opening of V&A Dundee has given its home city new confidence, with 84% of attendees saying the launch festival positively impacted their perception of Dundee.
Director of V&A Dundee Philip Long said, “It has been an extraordinary opening period for V&A Dundee and the support from visitors has surpassed all expectations.
“Amazingly we have welcomed half a million visitors to the museum in a little over six months, our inaugural exhibition has been seen by almost 100,000 people and crowds of over 22,000 turned out to take part in our opening celebrations.
V&A Dundee has also held more than 300 events including public lectures, design workshops, tours and school visits and 7,500 museum memberships have already been issued.
Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said, “V&A Dundee is a powerful symbol of Dundee’s new confidence and is not only raising the national and international profile of the city but is increasing Scotland’s attractiveness to tourists looking for world class cultural experiences.”