Coastal Tourism Monitor

Results from Wave 1 (Easter to end of May 2016)

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Introduction

The Coastal Tourism Monitor has been designed to provide a snapshot of the performance of tourism businesses on England’s coast. The research collects feedback on past performance and future prospects to give a national and regional overview.

The research involves a telephone survey with a core sample of 443 tourism businesses and 14 Destination Managers from around the English coast and will be conducted 3 times per year. Businesses making up the core sample were recruited to reflect the nature and distribution of tourism businesses around the English coast.

Fieldwork dates are:

6-17 June 2016, reviewing Easter to the end of May 5-16 September 2016, reviewing end of May until the end of the school summer holidays 5-16 December 2016, reviewing mid-September until the end of November

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Business profile

Business type Number of employees Business region

036%

Less than 440%

5 to 98%

10 to 4913%

50 to 2492%

250 plus1%

The core sample involved:

• 416 accommodation establishments including mix by region, establishment size and hotels / guest houses / B&B / self-catering / caravan and campsites.

• 27 visitor attractions including mix by region, attraction type, and size (measured by annual visitor admissions).

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East Midlands East England North East North West South East South West Yorkshire

36%

14% 17%

37%31% 29%

20%

39%

52% 50%

35%40% 41%

48%

Business was better Business was about the same Business was worse

Hotels Guesthouses/B&Bs Self-catering Caravan/camping sites

Visitor attraction

35%27%

32%24%

30%40% 41%

46%

31%

48%

Business was better Business was about the same Business was worse

Business performance, Easter to end of May, compared to same period last year

Overall across coastal businesses Performance by business type and across regions

25% 32%22%

45%

22%

25%33% 33% 28% 29% 30% 32%

“A significant proportion of tourism businesses saw a fall in performance over Easter to the end of May.”

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Reasons for decrease in performance, Easter to end of May, compared to same period last year

“Poor weather was by far the main factor driving down business performance. Storm Katie hit the UK over the Easter weekend.”

Staffing difficulties

Visitors staying for shorter period/reducing trip length

Business closed during some parts of this period

Competition from other parts of the UK

Running costs/operational costs have increase

Haven't marketed business much this year

Competition from overseas holidays

Competition from other local businesses

Visitors spending less money on their visit

Fewer visitors/guests

Decline in the appeal of the area to visitors

Poor weather

0%

1%

1%

1%

2%

4%

4%

4%

5%

11%

12%

42%

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Reasons for increase in performance, Easter to end of May, compared to same period last year

“Good weather, an increase in the appeal of the area to visitors, and an increase in staycation due to security fears abroad identified as top three reasons driving growth.”

Less competition from other parts of the UK

Running costs/operational costs have gone down

Visitors staying for longer period/increase in trip length

Less competition from other local businesses

Visitors spending more money on their visit

Better destination marketing campaigns which we are part of

Less competition from overseas holidays

Better marketing of businesses/spent more money on marketing this year

High customer satisfaction leading to more repeat visitors/new visitors

More visitors/guests

Investments we made to improve our offer last year starting to pay off

Staycation growth because of security fears abroad

Increase in appeal of the area to visitors

Fantastic weather

0%

1%

2%

2%

4%

5%

5%

7%

10%

12%

12%

16%

20%

27%

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East Midlands East England North East North West South East South West Yorkshire

47%

10%17%

36% 38%28%

20%

47%

71%78%

50% 56%64%

72%

Business to be better Business to be about the same Business to be worse

Hotels Guesthouses/B&Bs Self-catering Caravan/camping sites

Visitor attraction

36%28% 32% 34%

26%

53%62% 62% 66% 67%

Business to be better Business to be about the same Business to be worse

Business performance expectation for next 3 months, compared to same period last year

Overall across coastal businesses Performance by business type and across regions

10% 10% 5%0%

7%

6%19%

5% 14% 5% 8% 8%

“Looking ahead, confidence is relatively high;90% are confident that business will be as good or better this summer than last year.”

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Key challenges affecting coastal businesses

Are there key challenges affecting your business sector?

What are these challenges?

Yes49%No

51%

Lack of support from banks to reinvest

Security fears

Competition from other parts of UK

High UK retail prices

High staff turnover/lack of suitably qualified/experienced staff

Competition from overseas holidays

Cost of using/competition from online agents such as Hotels. com

Local competition

Over regulation

Poor UK economic climate - less money in consumers' pockets

Poor weather/unpredictable weather

0%

0%

1%

2%

3%

5%

7%

9%

9%

12%

26%

“Poor/unpredictable weather, followed by poor economic climate were major concerns across all business types and across all regions.”

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None Up to 5% Up to 10% Up to 20% Over 20%

13%

46%

17%

10%14%

Visitor market

% of visitors from overseas among businesses Where are overseas visitors from?

“Overseas visitors mostly came from Europe (54% in total, of which 41% from Western Europe and 13% from Eastern Europe).

The volume of overseas guests was similar across all business types but lower in East Midlands and the East of England / higher in the South East and the South West.”

% of overseas visitors

For just under half of all coastal tourism businesses, up to 5% of visitors are from overseas

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Visitor market

Changes seen in visitor needs/profile? What are these changes?

More couples

Fewer families

Decline in visitors from overseas

Increase in visitors from overseas

Shortening of trip length

More older visitors

Increase in younger visitors & families

Increase in online booking

Rising customer expections/more demanding

1%

2%

3%

5%

5%

6%

11%

15%

51%

We're noticing a lot more people that are just staying for

2 or 3 nights these days, whereas we used to get a lot

more people that would stay for a whole week previously.

The visitors are wanting more and more these days. For

example they want internet access, you give them that and then they want it faster. People are definitely more demanding

than they were.

We're getting more visitors that are booking online nowadays, and the ones that book online

tend to be very demanding and a pain to have here.

When we took the business over we had a lot of elderly guests but we now have less of those because we advertise on the

internet so the majority now are families or couples in their late

20's to early 30's.

Yes37%

No63%

Comments from businesses

“Over a third of businesses have experienced changes in visitor needs/profile.

Of these businesses, a half noted that customers expect more these days.”

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Destination Manager’s perspective

Business performance compared to same period last year

Expectations for next 3 months compared to same period last year

“In terms of key challenges affecting the industry, Destination Managers in common with tourism businesses cited the unpredictable British weather as a key factor. They also cited competition from other parts of the UK and lack of support from banks to reinvest. ”

Destination Managers were generally more bullish about business in the last quarter with 50% saying they thought it was better than last year. However, their reasons were quite different from businesses – most put it down to investment paying off and better marketing plus an increase in staycations due to security fears abroad.

Destination Mangers were also more positive about the summer period than businesses with two thirds expecting business to be better than last year.

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Impact of Brexit on tourism business performance

Early signs are that we will benefit enormously from Brexit, both in terms of staycations and overseas visitors owing to the low value of the pound.

I think it is far too early to tell, the lower £ will encourage overseas visitors

Anecdotally, tourism businesses and accommodations providers are reporting good numbers. Plus, the sun's decided to come out!

Comments from Destination Managers

“The Destination Managers took part in the Coastal Tourism Monitor a few weeks after the Referendum Result. An additional question was added to the survey on how they thought Brexit would impact on their destination this year.

The survey found that nearly half of the destination managers noted that they expected some increase in business as a result of Brexit arising from an increase in overseas visitors due to the lower value of the pound and possibly more domestic tourists due to uncertainty about travelling abroad.

However, there was a feeling that in the longer term these increases may be balanced out the impact of Brexit generally on the British economy.

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Overall business confidence for the summer is good.

The research will be repeated in September to assess the situation over the main school holiday period and then again in December 2016.

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Connect with the NCTALinkedin.com/company/national-coastal-tourism-academyFacebook.com/nationalcoastaltourismacademyTwitter: @nctacademyWebsite: coastaltourismacademy.co.uk

For more information about the Coastal Tourism Monitor please contact:

Jo EdomAcademy Manager

National Coastal Tourism Academy

t: 01202 962572w: www.coastaltourismacademy.co.uk

e: jo.edom@coastaltourismacademy.co.uk