Portsmouth's National Museum of the Royal Navy hailed as one of the UK's best tourist attractions

The site was hailed as one of the nation’s best tourist destinations, according to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, which placed 31st on a list of 230 Alva sites.

The news has been welcomed by city council leader Donna Jones, who said: ‘It’s great news that this relatively new museum is already drawing such big visitor numbers.

‘With other museums moving into the National Museum of the Royal Navy, such as the Royal Marines Museum next year, we can expect the museum to grow in strength and increase in the rankings of the UK’s most popular tourist sites.’

John Rawlinson, director of visitor experience at the museum, added: ‘We are really pleased with these figures and that they are benchmarked against the biggest attractions across the UK.’

He added: ‘The NMRN has its headquarters in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and, across the country, welcomes 1.2m visitors – making it the sixth most-visited attraction in England outside of London.’