Great Yarmouth is the place to be – again and again
Great Yarmouth and its surrounding areas are such a hit with its visitors they return time and time again, a new survey has revealed.
An annual survey of people holidaying or on short breaks in Great Yarmouth, Hemsby, Gorleston and other nearby areas last year found 95 per cent had enjoyed previous visits compared to 93 per cent in 2023.
And the number of people returning within six months rose last year to 61 per cent from 52 per cent in 2023.
The Great Yarmouth Visitor Survey 2024 – carried out between June and September 2024 – found that 93 per cent of those questioned would recommend the destination to family and friends.
Nine in 10 – 89 per cent – rated their overall enjoyment as ‘very high’ or ‘high,’ with the highest satisfaction scores awarded for the quality of their beach experience, their cleanliness, the coastline and the ease of finding their way around the area.
Activities they enjoyed included the weekly summer fireworks and entertainment, the seaside and beach, free activities, diversity of activities, hotels and accommodation, horse rides, amusements, walks and open spaces, cleanliness.
Visitors associated Great Yarmouth child-friendly activities, making memories, its family and community feel and its relaxed and friendly feel, they said.
The street survey of 450 face-to-face interviews took place on Great Yarmouth seafront, in the town centre and on Regent Road, and in Hemsby, Caister, Winterton and Gorleston. The research was commissioned by Visit Great Yarmouth so it can form a clear profile of visitors to the area and what they enjoy and value across the destination.
The results help Visit Great Yarmouth to shape its marketing campaigns and identify who and where to target their activities to attract new visitors.
Holidaymakers and day trippers account for more than 7.5million visits to the Great Yarmouth area, injecting a total of £631,062,890 to the borough’s economy.
Visit Great Yarmouth chair Lyndon Bevan said:
“We know people come back again and again, year after year, which reflects the welcome and diversity of experiences they enjoy across our destination. To learn of such a marked increase in the numbers who were back within six months gives us such a boost.
“This annual survey delivers us clear essential data to plan the best offer each year to attract people to our destination.”
“To hear that 93% of people would recommend Great Yarmouth as a visitor destination puts us in a good place going forward.
“Investing in this high-quality survey every year is invaluable to develop our best visitor offer and determine how we and where we market the Great Yarmouth area and where we target our efforts.”
Asa Morrison, chief executive of Visit Great Yarmouth, said:
“This data gives us a proper baseline on how we can grow. It allows us to understand what works here, what people return for and why and how our marketing is used to attract more people to Great Yarmouth all year round.”
Interviews took place between 11am and 6pm. Most interviews – 61 per cent – were held in Great Yarmouth on the seafront between the Pleasure Beach and the Waterways and on Regent Road, with 20 per cent to the south in Gorleston and Hopton and 19 per cent in the north, in Hemsby, Winterton, Caister and Newport.
Family units were the most usual visiting group, including intergenerational and extended families.
Most visitors came from the southeast and the east Midlands – 73 per cent – from Essex, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Kent, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
Most overnight visitors – 79 per cent – stayed in Great Yarmouth itself. Other popular choices were Caister, Hemsby, Gorleston, Scratby and East Somerton.
Overnight visitors are staying in the area longer, spending an average of 6.1 nights, an increase from 5.9 nights in 2023.
Most – 63 per cent – stayed in self-catering accommodation, including static caravans, holiday parks and chalets. A quarter of visitors stayed in hotels.
Visitors rated accommodation as good or very good – 84 per cent with 74 per cent saying they offered very good value for money.
Visitors’ daily spend was an average of £44.39 with £270.78 for overnight trips. Day visitors spent an average of £29.42 per person. Visitors’ top three activities were eating out attractions and shopping.
A total of 81 per cent travelled by car. Two in five used public car parks and 20 per cent found them expensive.
Most people who sought information before travelling used Great Yarmouth brochures and website.
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