Triple woe doesn't put off Blackpool's bank holiday visitors

Hotel and B&B owners across the Fylde coast say the bank holiday weekend was overall a busy time despite a triple whammy that could have knocked them off track.
The Livewire cancellation has not affected bank holiday tourist numbers.The Livewire cancellation has not affected bank holiday tourist numbers.
The Livewire cancellation has not affected bank holiday tourist numbers.

Poor weather, revised train timetables and the cancellation of the Livewire Festival sparked fears the weekend may not have been as busy as normal.

But businesses said the weekend passed off successfully for most.

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The president of hoteliers group Stay Blackpool, Claire Smith, said business has been just as good as other bank holidays.

Claire SmithClaire Smith
Claire Smith

Hotel owner Claire (inset) said: “We have been fully booked all weekend which is excellent considering what the weather has been like.

“It was also meant to be the Livewire event this weekend and along with the trains not running fully it has actually been quite a good weekend considering the bad things.”

Claire admitted that not all of the resort was as busy.

“I did hear some grumbling from people in North Shore which normally does as well as central and South Shore.

Tony BanksTony Banks
Tony Banks
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“It maybe because the Switch-On is next weekend as well as the Britney concert.”

Another hotel owner, Tony Banks, said he has had a 100 percent occupancy over summer.

He said: “The only bad stuff to report was the weather but we were fully booked over the weekend and long may it continue.”

This follows statistics published showing Blackpool is the second most searched for holiday destination in the UK.

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The resort beats the likes of Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh.

The research done by marketing commerce group Criteo, reveals only London is more popular in terms of searches than Blackpool.

Criteo aggregated over 300 million online searches from top UK travel websites, for holidays booked between July 1 and August 20 and found which UK cities were most popular.