Coastal Tourism Monitor

A snapshot of the performance of tourism businesses on England’s coast

Results from Wave 2(July and August 2016)

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Introduction

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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 400 tourism businesses 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 July and August i.e. school summer holidays ➢5-16 December 2016, reviewing mid-September to the end of November

This report presents results from the second survey wave.

Business profile

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Business type Number of employees Business region

The core sample involved:

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

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

Business performance, July and August, compared to same period last year

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Overall across coastal businesses Performance by business type and across regions

“For most business, performance was either up or the same as the same period last year. There were differences between business type and across the regions.”

Reasons for decrease in performance, July and August, compared to same period last year

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“The majority of businesses which saw a fall in trade attributed this to a reduction in the volume of visitors to their business or to their area. A number of businesses blamed this on fewer overseas visitors following Brexit.”

Reasons for increase in performance, July and August, compared to same period last year

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

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

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Overall across coastal businesses Performance by business type and across regions

“Looking ahead, most businesses expect performance to be the same or better than last year. Hotels and visitor attractions are the most confident about performance.”

Key challenges affecting coastal businesses

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Are there key challenges affecting your business sector?

What are these challenges?

“40% of businesses reported that there are key challenges facing their business with poor and often unpredictable weather being the main challenge. Other challenges were local competition and the poor UK economic climate.”

Note that multiple responses permitted

Other challenges included lack of funding/support from local councils, transport problems such as ferry prices, parking or traffic jams and concerns over Brexit

Visitor market

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

“87% of businesses received some visitors from overseas mostly from Western Europe, USA/Canada or Australia/New Zealand. Western European visitors were most likely to come from Germany the

Netherlands or France.

Business in the South West and the North East were most likely to receive visitors from overseas. ”

% of overseas visitors

For just over a third of all tourism businesses, up to 5% of visitors are from overseas

13% of tourism businesses have no visitors from overseas

Visitor market

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

There's a lot people these days that have special dietary requirements, like being vegetarian, or vegan, or

Gluten-free, and we now have to cater to all that.

Expectations are getting higher, especially in terms of

technology, with people expecting there to be fast wi-fi and sports television available.

We’re getting more younger people than we used to.

Thanks to Trip Advisor, people are expecting a lot more in

terms of freebies.

We have seen more younger people; they come with

unrealistic expectations as they do not really understand what

a B&B is, and expect what a hotel would provide.

Comments from businesses

“Just over a third of all businesses have experienced changes in visitor needs/profile. The main change is the rising expectations of visitors. Other changes include more younger visitors and families. ”

Initiatives taken to boost business in approaching off-peak season

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Now the main holiday season is over, what are you doing to attract additional customers and maintain business performance during the off peak period?

“Half of all businesses have not yet taken any actions to bolster trade over the coming off-peak season, though a number mentioned they planned to do so around October. 16% had started doing special promotions and 9% had reduced prices. ”

Comparison with wave 1 survey

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“Generally businesses reported more positive results compared to last year than in the spring. 40% reported that performance was better compared to 29% in the spring. Camping/caravan sites and visitor attractions were the

most likely to have noticed change – either positive or negative compared with last year. Business during the school holidays was generally a little better than had been expected in the spring.

Where business was down, 11% noted that visitors were spending less money compared to only 5% in the spring.”

“In terms of challenges, there was no significant change from those mentioned in the spring with unpredictable weather continuing to be the key one.

Many businesses in the spring noted the customer expectations were rising and this is still evident in wave two. 61% of those who had seen change mentioned this, in most cases just finding customers generally more

demanding. However catering for special diets, good internet access and facilities for disabled people were specific areas where more is expected these days.“

Destination Managers

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“Destination managers were mostly quite bullish about performance during the summer with better weather being the key reason. Some noted a growth in staycations because of security fears.

Most expected business to be about the same or better over the next 3 months.

Destinations reported a number of different activities that they were using to attract out of season visits including events, promoting activity holidays and targeted marketing campaigns.”

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The research will be repeated in December 2016 to assess business performance over the winter and business confidence for the start of 2017.

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

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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