‘Visitors will come back to our town after lockdown’ says tourism boss

Councillor Margaret Bannister, who is the town’s lead cabinet member for tourism and enterprise, believes that visitors will return to Eastbourne once lockdown is lifted.

Following a boost in tourism in 2019 the town naturally suffered last year with Covid-restrictions.

Councillor Bannister said, “Last year we were on track to do even better with the Welcome Building opening and Congress being opened and what have you, and it has just been completely hit on the head.

“Tourism is such a big part of the businesses of Eastbourne and the employment. 28 per cent of the workforce in Eastbourne work in tourism in one form or another so you can imagine that has been really bad. The job losses all around have been terrible for everybody.

“Not just hotels. Restaurants and shops and everybody who supplies the hotel industry has been hit by it.

“In 2019 we had 5.46 million visitors for tourism. That is a lot to lose suddenly in a year for everybody and businesses are really struggling.”

Despite a difficult year Eastbourne did have a spike in tourism following the first lockdown.

Councillor Bannister said: “We did get a lot of people coming to stay for just a few days. They were mainly doing outside activities but it was beginning to pick up.

“People wanted to go where they knew they were safe and where they could do their own thing. The hotels also noticed more people coming then they do in July, August, September time.

“People knew they were coming to places that had actually been made aware of Covid. They were following strict guidelines as to what they should be doing and shouldn’t be doing in the hotels, restaurants and other places, the theatres, so that they knew that they were coming somewhere safe.”

As the nation entered back into lockdown tourism dried up but the council along with Visit Eastbourne are now planning ahead to make sure that the town draws in visitors from across the continent.

Visit Eastbourne has released their holiday guide and has published their website in German to entice visitors as 45 per cent of tourists who come to the town are from overseas.

Another way the town has been promoted is through social media with 500,000 people viewing the #LoveEastbourne campaign.

Councillor Bannister added, “We are also encouraging people who work from home to bring their work with them and to do it while they are on holiday. If you are doing stuff on your laptop it doesn’t matter where you are. You could come to Eastbourne, work for a few hours, and then enjoy the rest of the day going out on the Downs or walking along the seafront.”

Along with these initiatives the number of walking and running events are being increased with the Beachy Head marathon already selling 2,000 places for this year.

Events and shows have also been planned and Councillor Bannister is confident tourism will return.

She said, “Of course it will. I’m a positive person. It has got to for the sake of the town. The tourism is so important to the town that we do need to get in as many visitors as we can and make sure our tourism industry continues.

“We are opening the bandstand again this year. Once that has come to the end of its season we will continue into the Winter Gardens.

“We have got so many sights, buildings and events. We are geared up to be Covid-ready. That is our priority, to make sure that we are Covid-safe.

“We are also on Facebook doing events and competitions and hopefully people will want to come and see us.

“If you want an outdoor lifestyle, that people do at the moment, we have got the Downs, we have got the seafront, we have got attractions like Buzz Sport. We have got so many events that are geared up to that.”

If you would like to know more about events and shows go to: https://www.visiteastbourne.com/