3 Tourism in Cornwall
Tourism is vital to the well-being of Cornwall and has been quoted as being as high as 24% of the County’s GDP. In 2003, domestic and overseas visitors made in excess of five million trips to Cornwall and spent in excess of £1,216m. The trend in annual visitor numbers is shown in the Figure below. The overwhelming majority of visitors are from the UK, with 30% being from the South East.
At the peak of the season, there are over 290,000 visitors to Cornwall in any one day, which adds around 60% to the resident population. London and Devon are the only areas of the UK that attract more visitors than Cornwall (2002 UK Tourism Survey). The seasonal influx of visitors has a far-reaching effect upon Cornwall’s character and life during the summer. It enables many businesses to operate which would not otherwise be viable. However, the increase in numbers creates problems such as traffic congestion, pressure on services and environmental damage.
In 2003, 87.5% of visitors travelled to the County by car, 5.4% by coach, 4.2% by train and 2.9% by air and other modes. The mode of transport for the period from 1993 to 2003 is shown in Figure 5.2. It can be seen that the use of the car has been slightly reduced since 1997 but still dominates the way in which visitors travel to Cornwall for their holiday.
Tourism undoubtedly contributes to Cornwall’s prosperity, but the numbers involved are significant. Annual visitor numbers equate to around 10 times the resident population countywide. In some of Cornwall’s more popular destinations, the figure is much higher, with annual visitor numbers in the Newquay area approximately 31 times higher than the resident population. The peak visitor numbers compared to the resident population for each district is given in Figure 5.3.
The average visitor duration of stay has also changed, with an increase in the shorter breaks of three to seven days throughout the year and less of the conventional seven or 14 day holidays of the 1970s and 1980s.
The last Cornwall Visitor Survey in 2003 showed that in terms of where the majority of people were staying, Newquay, St Ives and Falmouth came out the highest with almost 30% of visitors staying in these towns. Around 65.5% of visitors planned to visit the towns of Newquay, Padstow, Penzance, Falmouth and St Ives. In terms of the most popular attractions in the County, a large number of visitors intended to visit the Eden Project, with around 1.5m visitors. The details are provided in Figure 5.4 of visits to particular attractions in the County. However, it should be noted that visitor numbers are not available for all the main attractions.
The influx of visitors has a noticeable impact on the County's highway network, with significant increases in traffic flow on parts of the network. The implications of this are discussed later.