Museum-goers have been urged to keep visiting virtually.

Visitor attractions, including museums, have been closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the British Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A, Science Museum and National Gallery have seen a substantial increase in visitors to their websites, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva) said.

The Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria & Albert Museum (Myung Jung Kim/PA)

The British Museum recently reported a surge in online visitors after closing its doors.

Alva director Bernard Donoghue said there had been an “explosion in the number of people, here and around the world, virtually visiting the UK’s top visitor attractions” in around the last week.

“All of our attractions have fantastic websites and we encourage members of the public to visit them to see their collections, people, places and stories”, he said.

Zoos such as Edinburgh have seen huge interest in their “zoo cams”.

Other members of the association, such as Durham Cathedral, have been live streaming daily services.

The Ashmolean Museum of Art And Archaeology has launched #IsolationCreations, a social media campaign encouraging followers to “create” one thing inspired by their collections every day.

The British Museum has maintained its position as the most popular visitor attraction in the UK after it was visited more than 6.2 million times last year.