As most of you will be aware our wonderful town of Skegness has been rated 4th in the list of the Most Visited Towns and Cities in England. This is an excellent achievement, surpassing the previous list in which we were rated 6th. This year we were beaten (if that is the correct word) by London, Blackpool and Scarborough, nothing really surprising there, to be honest.
This shows just how strong our visitor base is and the affection that they hold for our town. What is even more gratifying and an excellent pointer to the future are the figures behind the ratings in the list.
Businesses in the town have been saying that this has been a very poor summer. I have no evidence to disprove this statement and they are the ones that know what has happened to their takings. The figures from VisitEngland do show a position of strength when compared to other resorts, so things could have been far worse.
Skegness has seen a fall in visitor numbers of just 2%, not to be viewed with any satisfaction but when you compare this with other resorts, Scarborough down 14%, Great Yarmouth down a massive 22%, Bounemouth down a huge 25% and Brighton an eye-watering 37%, I would suggest we are not doing too badly.
So what do I read into this then? Well, it appears that the people are still coming to Skegness but that they are spending less. This is only to be expected, to a large extent, in the current economic climate that the country has been left with. The important thing though, is that they are still coming. Our visitor numbers remain strong. As the economy improves, then we will be in an excellent position to benefit from it because the people are still here and they will have a bit more money to spend which will benefit us all.
So not only is the headline "Skegness 4th In The Country For Visitor Numbers" excellent news but the underlying strength is also very, very encouraging.
No room for complacency though!! Seek investment, accept investment and improve the town's facilities. Attract more visitors and grow the town's economy with the accompanying increase in jobs.
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