New list reveals most ‘fun’ educational visitor attractions in Scotland
If you’re looking for a fun and educational day out over the summer months, the latest research shows that the best places to head to are in Scotland.
According to various scientific research papers, the human brain is more receptive to learning when having fun. Accordingly, a survey was carried out to find out which of the UK’s educational visitor attractions was the most ‘fun’ and therefore the best at helping people learn and remember scientific or historical information.
The company that commissioned the research, Saturn Visual Solutions, has subsequently created a list of the ‘UK’s top 50 most fun educational visitor attractions’. The rankings are based on the number of people that named the site as a ‘fun’ attraction, rather than metrics like visitor numbers which tend to discount many smaller educational visitor attractions.
Five visitor attractions in Scotland were listed. Edinburgh Castle was the highest ranked visitor attraction outside of London and came top in Scotland. It took third place in the overall UK rankings, with 11 per cent of all respondents saying it was the most fun UK educational leisure attraction they’d been to.
Entry for Edinburgh Castle starts at £15.50 for adults, and comprises a royal palace, war and military museums, and an immersive exhibition showcasing the Castle’s role in the Wars of Independence. It was by far the most popular attraction in Scotland and was equally popular with both women (11%) and men (11%).
The second most popular educational visitor attraction in Scotland was National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which contains a wide range of artefacts, from Iron Age torcs to ‘Dolly the Sheep’, and was ranked 17th.
The Riverside Museum in Glasgow was ranked as the third most ‘fun’ educational visitor attraction in Scotland and ranked 24th in the list.
Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum in Glasgow, was ranked 29th. Glasgow Science Centre came 41st in the list.
Saturn CEO, Chris Welsh, said: “Every year there are tables of data about which visitor attractions are the most popular, but something that’s often overlooked is how much ‘fun’ they are. Both adults and children are more likely to learn and remember information if it’s part of a ‘fun’ experience, so we thought that it was important to find out which educational visitor attractions were most successful in making learning fun.
“Our research found that nearly half of adults categorise something as being boring if it doesn’t have engaging activities. So, it’s no major surprise that so many of the highest-ranking educational visitor attractions in our research, like Edinburgh Castle, have interactive exhibits and experiences on offer.”
Saturn Visual Solutions is a digital signage consultancy that works with leisure businesses and charities to help them make the ‘visitor experience’ more engaging and fun.
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