Tourism Boom Brings Good News To The South West

Doom and gloom on the high street has not yet spread to the beach. Bookings are up by 63% in some seaside towns and nearly 60% of Brits are taking a holiday at home this year.

Visits to south west tourist attractions in January to March were up by more than a third on the same period last year, perhaps as a result of the new trend for “staycations”, where a family spends their holiday at home but visits local attractions. It seems that bad news in the rest of the economy is good news for the tourist industry as the economic downturn, rising airfares and the strong Euro lead to fewer holidaymakers going abroad.

Visitor-related spend is worth more than £8.9 billion per year to the south west economy, with half going to Devon and Cornwall. The industry employs over 237,000 people in our region, which equates to 10% of the working population. The sector is growing year on year, thanks to factors such as the rise in green tourism and an increasing emphasis on healthy lifestyles.

There is no doubt that the British seaside holiday is undergoing a renaissance. The Government is spending £10 million on regenerating three British seaside towns and Torbay is one of these towns. Over the next three years, an additional £35 million will be available for projects in UK seaside resorts.

Just last month, Travelodge announced an investment of £150 million in 55 new budget hotels around the UK coast, creating 1,000 new jobs. The company predicts revenue at its coastal hotels will rise by 30% in July and August. 4,000 new jobs are set to be created in the UK by McDonalds and Whitbread plans an investment of £100 million on nine new hotels and five new pubs/restaurants in the next few years.

In a further piece of good news for the South West, Torquay was recently voted the number one destination for British travellers to visit this summer, followed by St Ives, Bournemouth and Weymouth.

Operators across the board in the south west are cautiously optimistic, with bookings up and little capacity for casual visitors. However, visitors are spending slightly less per head than normal, which perhaps shows that the recent increases in fuel, food and utility prices are leading to a general tightening of belts on those holiday shorts. In reality, the full picture will not become clear until the end of the crucial school holiday period.

Many business owners are dubious about the effect of the credit crunch, believing that the weather has more of an impact than economic factors. So let’s cross our fingers for an Indian summer to finish the season on a high note.

Published 26/08/2008. The author of this article is Karen Plumbley-Jones