The UK Government has introduced a temporary reduction in VAT on admission tickets at a range of visitor attractions, running from 25 June to 1 September 2026 under the Great British Summer Savings campaign. In early June, alongside market research for two visitor attractions, we asked 2,077 adults across the UK what they had heard about the change and what they expected it to mean for prices.
The research revealed that, at this point in the summer, respondents were either unaware, or leaned skeptical, of the campaign.
Just over half of respondents (54%) had heard something about the change. Of the full sample, 17% said they knew the details, 37% had heard about it without knowing the details, and 46% had not heard about it at all.
Most respondents do not expect prices to fall
Across the whole sample, 23% expected prices to go down over the period. Among respondents who had not heard about the change, 44% expected prices to rise and 16% expected them to fall.
Expectations varied with awareness. Around 30% of respondents who had heard about the change expected prices to fall, compared with 16% of those who had not. The relationship held across both organisations in the study, with awareness associated with a higher expectation of a price reduction in each case.
Few expect the full saving to be passed on
Respondents who expected a reduction were also asked how large they thought it would be. Among those who were aware of the change, up to 39% expected the full VAT saving to be passed on, falling to 29% among those who were not aware. In each group, the majority expected only part of the saving to be reflected in prices.
Implications for attractions
The findings indicate two areas attractions may wish to consider during the campaign period. Awareness of the change is currently low, which leaves room for communication to inform expectations among visitors who have not yet heard about it.
Expectations of full pass-through are also modest, so attractions that do go down that route, have an opportunity to communicate this with confidence to a skeptical public.
Given the low level of awareness and expectations from the public, attractions that are ineligible to participate, or are choosing not to pass on all/any of the VAT reduction, will likely want to adopt a reactive communications posture, making information available on request.
Findings are based on responses from 2,077 UK adults, collected in early June 2026. Results are also reported separately for the two participating organisations.
Photo by Jay Alexander on Unsplash