Welcome to our October Newsletter!

It was encouraging to meet so many of you last week at our first Coastal Tourism Forum in London, clear evidence of the importance the industry places on convening together to share best practice, hear new research and stimulate debate to quicken growth. 

All of our presentations of the day – stats and facts on the current status of coastal tourism, new research and much more are available here.

During the day, we staged a workshop to create a Vision for the Coast. We’d like to hear views from all coastal destinations, businesses and organisations to ensure you’re represented. See how to get in touch and more on the Vision below.

Following the Forum we met a good number of MPs with a coastal constituency to update them on coastal tourism and share some of the outputs of the Forum.  The consultative Vision document was well received and we’ll ensure MPs are kept abreast of new initiatives and research in the coming months.

Coming up, I’ll be speaking in Plymouth on 15th November. We’ll also be speaking at The Big Bash, organised by the North York Moors Tourism Network on 14th November and at the Dorset Coast Forum on 17th November. We’re always very happy to meet you or talk at your events, just get in touch.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Samantha Richardson

New Discover England Fund project 
 
The NCTA has been awarded funding from VisitEngland’s Discover England Fund to trial a Coastal Pass for England’s East coast, an exciting new travel tool that will allow holidaymakers to create their own itineraries by watching interactive videos.

The Pass, which covers the coast from Hull to Harwich, will inspire and condense the booking process into a more simplified procedure. The videos are thematic and draw attention to stretches of coastline little explored by international visitors.  

The Pass will be trialled initially with holidaymakers travelling from The Netherlands.  

New Vision for the Coast?

At our Forum in London, the Vision workshop stimulated an interesting debate. We’re currently collating the themes into one Vision document which we’ll circulate shortly.  If you were unable to make the Forum, take a look at the video to see the key objectives here.  

This is a consultation process and we very much want to hear from you. Do contact me with your views.

New on our Resource Hub!

Coming up on our Resource Hub! 

Activity Holidays

Recent research from Mintel has suggested that more than one third of UK adults took an activity related break in the past year. The market is dominated by walking but cycling, water sports and golf are also popular. There’s clear growth potential and a market fit with coastal destinations.

As such the NCTA commissioned a bespoke study to understand the market potential for the coast – at our Forum we shared the top level results and we’ll be publishing a full report later next month, but it’s clear there are substantial opportunities for growth:

• 18% of UK holidaymakers in England have been on an active holiday in the past two years

• When the term ‘active holiday’ was spelt out (to include hiking, cycling, golf and water sports), 49% of holidaymakers in England have been on an active holiday in the past two years

• 35% of holidaymakers are considering an active break right now!

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