Pirates Day - one of many reasons to visit Hastings. (Photo: HBC)

Still the place to come!

While most of the economic news is gloomy, Hastings remains a popular place to visit. The tourism statistics for 2011 just released by Tourism South East show that the visitor economy is still vitally important for the town, says the council in a press release.

“We keep hearing about the decline of the British seaside resort, and how tourism isn’t important any more,” says Cllr Peter Chowney, lead member for regeneration. “That simply isn’t true as far as Hastings is concerned.

“Whilst it is right that we look to diversify what the town does, we must also recognise that people love visiting us, and these visitors provide valuable jobs. In fact these independent figures show that tourism related expenditure is worth a staggering £239m to the Hastings economy, and that an estimated 5,160 jobs in the town are supported by tourism spend.

“It’s also worth noting that people are wanting to stay longer, with an estimated 420,000 overnight visits here in 2011, a rise of 4% on 2010; some 14% of these were by overseas visitors, a very high figure.

“These figures don’t take into account the opening of the Jerwood Gallery earlier this year, nor our fantastic ‘Stade Saturdays’ programme, of course. We already know that our seafront car parks have been busier than last year, so I’m expecting the 2012 figures to be better than ever.”

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