Lancashire County Council Logo | Listen | Home | A to Z | Feedback | Complaints | Your Council | Business | Residents | Visitors |
Only a relatively small number of the tourism attractions in Lancashire submit visitor figures for publication, and some estimated attendances add to the problem of drawing broad conclusions from only limited information. In general however, it would appear that the picture is broadly positive and the continued regeneration of Blackpool, and a number of other developments present some optimism for the future.
Central Government has set 198 priority measures for local government (External) 198 priority measures for local government and visits to museums and galleries is indicator number NI10. It is defined as the percentage of people (16 and above) who say that they have attended a museum or art gallery in the local area at least once in the preceding 12 months.
This article highlights a number of the local museums and galleries in the area that people can visit. No results are yet available for this particular indicator, but future editions of the article will incorporate the findings.
Current details of results for other national indicators can be found on the (External) Floor Targets Interactive section of the Communities and Local Government website .
Tourism is important to the Lancashire economy and the (External) Lancashire Economic Partnership has put forward the regeneration of Blackpool and tourism and rural development as two of the six themes in the regional economic strategy for the area. Analysing visitor attraction figures is therefore useful in trying to identify any progress towards achieving these two themes.
The visitor figures contained in this monitor have been taken from the (External) Visitor Attractions Trends England 2007 report undertaken by Visit Britain .
The survey was carried out by means of a self-completion questionnaire mailed to all known English visitor attractions. In total, 5,736 English visitor attractions were invited to take part in the 2007 survey of which some 2,010 (35%) provided visits figures.
Statistics are available that measure the volume and value of tourism for each Lancashire authority .
The (External) regional statistics section of the Eurostat website contains a tourism section. Information is published for arrivals, nights spent, the number of establishments, bedrooms and bed spaces. The figures are published at the European NUTS-3 level areas that include the Lancashire County Council area and the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. The NUTS-2 classification level presents results at the broader Lancashire level that is an amalgamation of these three areas.
The (External) Lancashire and Blackpool Tourism Board website is said to be an online resource for business advice, the latest industry news, information on skills and training and marketing opportunities for your tourism business.
For the purpose of the survey, the definition of a visitor attraction is: "an attraction where it is feasible (but not necessary) to charge admission for the sole purpose of sightseeing. The attraction must be a permanently established excursion destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow access for entertainment, interest, or education; rather than being primarily a retail outlet or a venue for sporting, theatrical, or film performances. It must be open to the public, without prior booking, for published periods each year, and should be capable of attracting day visitors or tourists as well as local residents. In addition, the attraction must be a single business, under a single management, so that it is capable of answering the economic questions on revenue, employment etc."
As there are a number of attractions which are primarily retail outlets but have an attraction element, a set of guidelines have been included asking such attractions to take part only if they could provided data for the attraction element itself.
Please note that the complementary tourism research monitor analyses employment levels in the Lancashire tourism industry and provides important context material about the scale of the tourism sector in the county. For a back-series of all our tourism-related research monitors published, go to the archive .
Table 1 lists the various categories under which attractions are classified. The number of establishments in England that submitted a return is listed along with the yearly percentage changes results for England.
A total of 1,348 England visitor attractions provided visitor figures for both 2006 and 2007. Together these establishments reported an average increase of 3% for 2007 in England, but there was a -4% reduction for listed attractions in the North West.
The -4% decrease in the North West is noticeable given the +3% increase recorded in 2006. This was largely driven by one large attraction (Oswaldtwistle Mills in East Lancashire) reporting a significant decrease in visits in 2007.
Photograph of Whalley Abbey
The weather can have a noticeable affect on yearly trends. In general, 2007 was a generally warm year in England, but rainfall was well above average particularly during the summer months. Outdoor attractions benefit from good weather whilst others such as museums and art galleries usually benefit from wetter weather.
Table 2 lists the attractions in Lancashire for which 2007 figures are available. Unfortunately in Lancashire only 25 attractions submitted visitor numbers for the year. The (External) Visit Lancashire website lists hundreds of Lancashire attractions of every conceivable type and size, and emphasises the fact that those listed in Table 1 only provide a small proportion of the entire list. It may therefore prove potentially misleading to try and place too much emphasis on the results from only a minority of attractions.
All but two of the 25 attractions also submitted a figure for 2006, therefore yearly change results are included in the table. Over the 12-month period, 13 of the 25 attractions recorded increases; one saw no change, whilst nine recorded declining attendances.
(External) Blackpool Pleasure Beach is a family-run business that has been in existence since around 1900. It remains one of the most popular attractions in the country, but attendance figures have been on the decline over recent years. The Pleasure Beach attained an attendance peak in 1995 of 7.3 million, soon after the opening of the Pepsi Max Big One (briefly the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster). The 2007 number of 5.5 million visitors represents a -4.0% reduction over the past year.
The local press announced in February 2008, that from 2009, visitors to the Pleasure Beach will pay a £5 admission charge (previously free) if they do not intend to purchase an unlimited ride wristband. This is likely to have an impact on overall visitor numbers in future years.
Irwell Vale Station, (External) East Lancashire RailwayPhotograph of Irwell Vale Station on the East Lancashire Railway
The other major attraction in Blackpool in Table 2 is the Zoo. The estimated attendance of 335,000 represented a 4.7% improvement on the previous year.
Blackpool, like many other coastal resorts, has faced some very challenging times over recent years but there are a number of (External) major developments in the town that have recently been completed or are under construction. Other proposed projects emphasise the fact that there is room for some optimism about the future.
(External) Camelot Theme Park near Chorley is the other large theme park that is based in Lancashire. The 2007 result of 270,000 visitors represents a -3.6% reduction over the previous year.
Over in East Lancashire, Oswaldtwistle Mills recorded a significant decline in numbers between 2006 and 2007 but under the 'major workplaces' classification it remains the most visited site of its type in England that is listed in the report.
The estimated visitor numbers at Cuerden Valley and Beacon Country Park highlight their importance of country parks as recreational facilities for both visitors to the area and the local community.
The (External) East Lancashire Railway is the final attraction in Table 2 that recorded more than 100,000 visits. The headquarters of the society and most of the route of the line is outside the county therefore the main report rightly does not list it as a Lancashire attraction. Since it does however serve the two Rossendale district stations of Irwell Vale and Rawtenstall, it has been added to the list.
Amongst the list of smaller visitor attractions is the (External) Ribchester Roman Museum that unfortunately recorded a fall in visitor numbers to 13,855 during 2007. The museum may however in future benefit from recent publicity given to the most important roman find made in Ribchester. This was a military helmet that is kept at the (External) British Museum . In 2008, the bronze helmet was given a high profile as part of a very popular exhibition that traced the life and times of the roman Cesar Hadrian.
The Museum of Lancashire which received 10,127 visits in 2007 is one of a number of museums managed by Lancashire County Council . Amongst the other attractions listed on the website, the Lancaster City Museum received a major boost in October 2008, when a 'unique' six foot high roman tombstone that was discovered in the town went on display to the public.
Local knowledge would be needed to fully understand the reasons behind particular yearly changes at various attractions. Some may be closed for a time for refurbishment whilst others may have had a particularly good year as a result of a popular exhibition, and then find it difficult to maintain the same level of interest. For example, the South Ribble Museum and Exhibition centre saw numbers decline by -13.7%. The museum had mounted an exhibition of the photographs taken on the Shackleton Antarctic expedition that received very good press coverage and drew in a number of visitors. It would be very difficult for a small museum to maintain the same level of visitor interest the year after.
Lancashire County Council's Countryside Service is responsible for Beacon Fell and Wycoller Country Parks and a variety of other sites across the county .
Beacon Fell has a car counter that allows an estimate to be made of visitor numbers. Between 1st April 2007 and 31st March 2008, the counter recorded 92,554 cars. A Department for Transport national travel survey suggests that the average car occupancy for day trips and holidays is 2.3. On this basis, it was estimated that the number of visitors to Beacon Fell was 212,874.
The County Council's Countryside Service did have people counters in the Forest of Bowland monitoring users of the access land as part of a national monitoring scheme run by Natural England. Brief details of the results were incorporated in a People and Hen Harrier monitoring report .
The car park at the Crook O'Lune site is scheduled to get a car counter therefore results may be available in future copies of this report.
After a £750,000 redevelopment, Helmshore Mills Textile Museum reopened in January 2008 with new displays, interactive touch screens, recommended routes and a completely refurbished café and shop area.
In Burnley, the (External) Towneley Hall Art Gallery, Museum and Park has undergone significant investment. The 14th century house with its famed Elizabethan Long Gallery and plasterwork by Vassalli has benefited from a £1.1 million spend on the Hall and £3.2 million on the parkland.
The Clitheroe Castle museum is closed until spring 2009 for major redevelopment work.
The (External) 2008 North West Tourism Award winners highlighted the redeveloped (External) Cleveleys sea front as the best new public space in the North West. The customer service award went to the (External) Sandcastle Waterpark in Blackpool, whilst also in the town the Self-Catering Holiday award went to the (External) Beach House .
This page was compiled by Bryan Moulding .
All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .
Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .
For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .
Printer Friendly Version | About our website | Top of page | Office of the Chief Executive Copyright © 2009, Lancashire County Council | Site Terms (External) Tell us what you think about our site...