Visitors Flock To Kent Coast To Enjoy Summer Sunshine
Posted in Around town, In the country, Miscellaneous, On the coast on September 23rd, 2010 by admin – 0 CommentsKent and Medway’s tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses’ bumper summer season which really took off in sunny June continued into July, according to the latest research from Visit Kent.
Statistics collated in the Visit Kent Business Barometer reveal that overall attractions welcomed more than 426,000 visitors – three per cent more than in July last year. The July sunshine was particularly appreciated in the county’s coastal resorts where visitor attractions saw a 15 per cent leap in visitor numbers compared with last year.
Cross-Channel carriers transported 12 per cent more passengers and cars and four per cent more coaches. Business tourism providers enjoyed a 23 per cent boost.
Meanwhile, there are indications that more visitors to the county were staying overnight with B&Bs and guest houses enjoying a 12 per cent increase in the number of guests compared with July 2009 and larger hotel occupancy was up seven per cent overall.
Sandra Matthews-Marsh, Chief Executive for Visit Kent, said: “The upward trend is continuing which is great news in this challenging economic climate.
“The vast majority of our visitors, around 80 per cent, are from the UK but thanks to the strong Euro we are currently seeing more overseas visitors particularly from France and Germany. Furthermore, our business and leisure events programme across the county has been very strong this summer which has attracted additional visitors. Our partners have been very creative with their events programmes and product development.”
Kent and Medway are also reaping the benefit of the new marketing campaigns launched by Visit Kent and its business partners to drive traffic to the www.visitkent.co.uk website. These include Kent Contemporary’s stunning new images of the county and the user-generated interactive My Kent campaign showcasing local people, their passions for the county and the local places they love to visit.
When compared to 2009 the number of unique visits to the Visit Kent website were up 51 per cent in July with more than 216,000 visits.
“Potential visitors are finding out more about Kent and Medway online and we are converting that interest into actual visits,” added Mrs Matthews-Marsh.
Kent and Medway welcomes more than 45 million visitors each year contributing more than £2.5 billion to the local economy. Tourism supports 50,600 jobs in Kent and Medway across 3,000 small and medium sized businesses.
- Visit Kent Limited is a public/private sector partnership supported by Kent County Council, Medway Council, the district and borough councils, Tourism South East and the leading sector tourism businesses in Kent. Visit Kent champions Kent’s £2.5 billion tourism industry by targeting UK and overseas markets, improving quality and skills and growing investment in the tourism product.
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