ONE of Britain’s most popular family visitor attractions clocked up record attendance figures last year while celebrating its 65th anniversary season but is offering plenty of monkey business to entertain everyone this year.

Drayton Manor Park in Tamworth, Staffordshire, enjoyed a 10 per cent increase on visitor numbers in 2015 over the previous year.

With a £2.5 million expansion of Thomas Land and a host of new rides, as well as the brand new two-storey Sodor Airport, visitor numbers soared.

Following a successful summer, the much loved family attraction hit a record attendance for its Fireworks Spectacular weekend, welcoming nearly 33,000 visitors over three days at the end of October.

It was a whopping 28per cent increase in the number of visitors compared to the previous largest fireworks attendance and also the largest firework display the park has seen in 25 years.

To top it all off, the 65th anniversary season ended with another record breaking attendance during its Magical Christmas event with a 34 per cent increase in guests from 2014.

Despite the park’s momentous success in 2015, it is looking forward to the coming year and there is plenty to keep existing and new visitors excited. In spring 2016, the Staffordshire-based theme park will see the opening of its brand new Tamarin Trail.

Guests will have the opportunity to walk through the beautiful planted gardens in the attraction, getting up close and personal with the cute and inquisitive monkeys. It will have eight new enclosures that will be housing a variety of tamarins and marmosets.

There are five species so far, including the white lipped tamarin, red handed tamarin, emperor tamarin, cotton top tamarin and the common marmoset.

This year will also mark the five year anniversary of the opening of the hugely popular onsite four-star Drayton Manor Hotel, which has featured Thomas & Friends™ themed rooms since its opening in 2011. The park’s onsite restaurant the Grill Inn will also celebrate its fifth anniversary this year.

For more information about the park, visit www.draytonmanor.co.uk or call 0844 472 1950. For regular updates and news about Drayton Manor Theme Park join it on Twitter www.twitter.com/Draytonmanor and Facebook www.facebook.com/DraytonManorPark

Colin Bryan, chief executive officer of Drayton Manor Theme Park, said: “Our 65th anniversary year has been a truly momentous year for the Bryan family and all of the staff here and we’re so pleased to have been able to provide so many families with lasting memories.

“We always want to go above and beyond to make sure every season is better than the last for our visitors and this year we did just that, we’re really looking forward to another fantastic year in 2016.”