Eagerly awaited tourism figures for the summer of 2018 are being teased ahead of their official release next month.
The statistics, compiled by Tourism South East, cover the period from July until the end of September this year.
Visit Isle of Wight say they are delighted that their marketing strategy, intended to strengthen the Island’s appeal with core audiences and bring additional growth, has proved successful.
Will Myles, Managing Director at Visit Isle of Wight explains:
“[In] Quarter 3, which is July, August and September, we’re seeing an increase of just over 15 thousand visitors to the Island during that period, that’s compared to the same time the previous year.”
Although a large percentage of the visitors that came are classed as domestic, international visitors also make up a noticeable percentage. In particular, there is a growing trend in visitors from the Benelux region of Europe, including the Netherlands and Belgium.
The benefit to the Isle of Wight’s economy has also increased.
“The year from October 2017 through until the end of September 2018, the value of tourism spend is 286 million pounds. If I look at that from the previous 12 months, that’s actually about 4 and a half million pounds more, showing an increase year on year. That has to be good news.”
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For the same period of July, August and September in 2017, domestic day visitors were spending just over £20. Will Myles says that figure has also increased dramatically:
“Domestic day visitors on to the Island for the same period have been spending £49.49. That is 139% up on the year on year, a huge number.”
It was a tough start to the traditional holiday season, and recently released figures showed that the Isle of Wight suffered along with the rest of the UK with poor weather at Easter:
“Easter was not a good start to the season and I think a lot of tourism providers on the Island will probably want to just lock that away in a cupboard. What I would say is that it’s had an impact, but we’re seeing stronger growth and stronger visitor numbers from then on, so it’s a really positive message going forward.”
Although the summer of 2018 will be remembered as a long hot one, a notable exception was the popular August Bank Holiday, which is reflected in the statistics:
“One of the things we’ve got to take into consideration is that towards the end of August, it wasn’t quite as sunny as maybe everyone remembers. August Bank Holiday was horrible, I stood and got very wet at a pop concert in Southsea!”
The official data dashboard is due to be released at the beginning of November by Tourism South East, condensing the huge range of statistics. This will be available at VisitWightPro.com.
