This week is British Tourism Week and a new report published by Visit
Kent shows just how important this industry is to our local economy,
and why it should have a bright future.
The report shows that in 2009 tourism contributed £3.2 billion to the
Kent economy, a 10% increase over the previous three years. In Shepway
tourism brings in over £200million a year and supports the jobs of
over 4,000 people. In fact, just to underline how important tourism is
to our economy, Shepway has a greater proportion of jobs linked to
tourism than any other area of Kent. Also in the figures is a sign
that some of the investment into the area may be helping to attract
more visitors. Between 2006 and 2009 the report shows that income from
day trip visitors grew by 14%; the biggest increase in Kent. This
period would also include the visitors to first Folkestone Triennial
Arts Festival in 2008. Last year, Visit Kent ran their new tourism
campaign Kent showing contemporary images from the ‘Garden of
England’. These adverts included photographs of Kite surfing at
Greatstone, and the Creative Quarter in Folkestone; this image is
currently being displayed on the front page of Visit Kent’s website.
The results from this campaign suggest that it has been their most
successful yet and I hope it can attract more visitors this summer.
The starting gun for the London Olympics has been fired this week with
the application service for tickets for the events now open. Since
Tuesday people have been apply to tickets to everything from the
opening ceremony to the Modern Pentathlon. Each event has tickets at
all prices from £20.12 to a maximum price £2012; and that includes the
opening ceremony and other big days in the Olympic Stadium like the
100m final. The tickets are not being allocated on a first come first
served basis at the moment and you have 6 weeks to register and apply
for tickets, which will then be allocated by ballot. So you might get
lucky and get ticket for one of the big events, but if not there will
be plenty of other opportunities to experience the games. You can
register and apply for tickets online at www.tickets.london2012.com or
telephone 0845 267 2012 for more information.
The Olympics will also bring a great many visitors to the area. It has
been estimated that one in four people who travel to the games from
Europe will come through Kent and we can expect hotels and guest
accommodation to sell out. This will be good news for local
businesses, and also the travel centres like the Channel Tunnel, Dover
Port and Lydd Airport. Of course many of the international visitors
for the games will have time during their trip to take in other
attractions and I hope we can encourage them to come and see what Kent
has to offer.
Finally I would like to wish all readers a very happy St Patrick’s Day.