The councillor leading the reopening of Nottingham Castle says the authority is aiming for a more “realistic” target of 200,000 visitors per year.
A three-year restoration project of the historic site, costing more than £30m, was completed in 2021.
Nottingham Castle Trust was set up to run the attraction and said it would become “world-class”, helping the city’s tourism appeal to rival Warwick and York.
The trust set itself a target of 300,000 visitors a year following the re-opening, but after the first eight months, the castle had only welcomed 100,000.
• Nottingham Castle to host ‘Medieval Legends’ this May bank holiday tickets £1
Nottingham City Council’s Cllr Pavlos Kotsonis said:
“Starting from the trust and the time they had to go through, which was Covid and a few other things, there were reasons they could not meet targets, but in retrospect 300,000 was a very big number,” he said.
“We have a much more realistic number now in terms of our expectations.”
“There’s a certain line talking about the grounds being free, and it is understandable, I fully understand the sentiment and I respect it,” he added.
“You have a £31m investment in the grounds, the adventure playground, the castle and all the work done to get the Ducal Palace back to its current state.
“How do we make sure that produces the goods and brings something back?
“Having an offer of £12 for a whole year of access, and having a new element which is children 15 and under go free, is a much stronger offer than before.
“And talking about free access, yes, there are going to be open days.”
Although tours of the castle’s cave system will incur extra fees, the annual access includes all the regular internal exhibitions including the interactive Robin Hood gallery.
The site will be operated by the council’s “very experienced” Museums and Galleries Service, alongside Wollaton Hall and Newstead Abbey, to encourage financial sustainability.
Cllr Kotsonis said “Failures definitely happened and are being reviewed” in response to the trust’s management of the castle.
“I’m really confident we are going to deliver for Nottingham in a much more robust way than the trust could have ever achieved,” Cllr Kotsonis said.
“[Safeguarding] is one of those things we considered first.
“How can we ensure the site is going to be safe for all protected characteristics?
“This is one of the key considerations in my mind, bringing back the castle is bringing it back for everybody.”
• Nottingham Castle opening date confirmed as 26 June
• Nottingham Castle tickets to cost £12 for the entire year’s visiting
