Outlook is sunny for the coast!

There’s been much talk about business performance and confidence post Brexit. To gauge the barometer, we’ve conducted two surveys of 400 coastal tourism businesses to find out how confidence levels really are.

Following the results of our spring survey, we can now report on how businesses performed during July and August 2016 compared with last year.

Overall, most businesses saw an increase in business or were on a par with trade last year. And businesses were more positive in the summer than in the spring, with 40 per cent reporting better performance over 2015 compared to just 29 per cent in the spring. By sector, camping and caravan sites and visitor attractions saw the most noticeable change.

The three main reasons cited for growth were non-surprising – the good weather, a hike in the number of staycations and an increase in the appeal of the destination.

Coastal businesses are also positive about the outlook, with most expecting performance to be the same or even better than last year; hotels and attractions demonstrated the strongest confidence.

Some 87 per cent of businesses attracted business from overseas with the North East and South West the most popular coastlines amongst international visitors.

Compare both the spring and summer results here.