Tourism boom

LEWES is bursting out all over with tourists and that's official.

As many as 7,500 visitors are believed to be currently in the town each day and a good tenth of them are from the continent, particuarly Belgium, Holland, Germany and Italy.

There are also sizeable contingents of Americans, Australians and Japanese.

Said Lewes Chamber of Commerce executive member and local trader Andrew Clarke: 'It has been an excellent visitor season and the visitors are spending their money.

'It is all very gratifying after the floods and then foot and mouth last year.

'The tourists also seem very happy to be in Lewes with its special atmosphere, its specialist shops and its pubs and restaurants.

Identity

'So many other towns have lost their identity. Lewes is not a cloned place. There are not many like it any more in England because of the march of the multiples.'

Between 500 and 900 visitors a day about 5,000 a week are using the facilities at the Lewes Tourist Information Centre and that is thought to represent about 10 per cent of the total number of visitors in the town.

Manager Sally Bass said: 'This summer is looking very good. We are also averaging more than 70 enquiry telephone calls daily.'

Lewes received more than a million visitors last year and that figure could now easily be topped.

Each visitor spends roughly 20 a day and a great deal more if they spend the night in the town.

Roy Patten at the Berkeley Hotel said: 'This is our best season ever. We have been full more or less since June and quite a few of our guests have been non-British.'

Nearly 6,000 people paid to visit Lewes Castle and the town's two museums in July.

The White Hart has been more or less at capacity throughout the summer and proprietor Cliff Ayris has reported an increase in non-British visitors, at times accounting for as many as 30 per cent of the guests.

A Lewes District Council spokesman said the Lewes Festival, Tom Paine celebration and Lewes Guitar Festival had drawn people into the town, as would the forthcoming Artwave Festival.

l Putting the district on the map: Page 2