Resort has plenty to celebrate writes Andy Mitchell

What a difference a year has made to the fortunes of our fine resort. Now there are early figures to support what we knew deep down after a bumper summer, that “Blackpool is Back”
Blackpool touristsBlackpool tourists
Blackpool tourists

Council figures show footfall on the seafront and the Promenade was more than 60 per cent ahead of pre pandemic levels in July and August this year.

The weather certainly helped the optimism, whilst international restrictions still conspired to keep all but the most determined continental traveller confined to the UK.

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You may wonder how anyone manages to count the hundreds of thousands of happy visitors as they make their way along the Golden Mile. Well this is where the impressive technology we conveniently carry around with us all the time comes into its own.

I defy anyone not to be impressed with the figure that mobile phone data has revealed, for it shows nearly ELEVEN MILLION people visited the Prom during July and August, compared with six point six million in the summer of 2019. Now THAT is a stat you can proudly slip into any Facebook rant to ward off those who would do down Blackpool.

Here’s another impressive figure for those who complain about the town centre streets behind the glitz of the Prom.... footfall in our main shopping areas was also up....no less than 26 per cent from five point five million in 2019 to nearly seven million this year.

If you thought last summer saw a bounceback, whilst we were being urged to “eat out to help out”, the figures also show this year is up 48 per cent compared to last year’s figure of four point six million.

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Our Head of Tourism, Mr Welsh comments: “Businesses across most tourism and hospitality sectors in the resort are reporting exceptional results compared to 2019 (the last full year of tourism activity pre-pandemic) and strong bookings over the remainder of this year.

There’s plenty to celebrate then as we get into Half term, traditionally our busiest two weeks of the year.

In a year when we have been closely watching graphs, those addicted to stats will at last be smiling that hard work to look after our core industry is paying off, with bookings for 2022 already packing out the diary.

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