Positive vote secures five-year investment to attract visitors to Greater Yarmouth
- Visit Great Yarmouth wins ballot to continue work to promote Greater Yarmouth area nationally, regionally and locally and invest in the best visitor experience.
- Its first announcement today is that the Wheels Festival and summer fireworks are being planned for summer 2025.
- “Visit Great Yarmouth is here for businesses to thrive, achieved by us all working together to boost visitor numbers, shaping a unique offer and making our destination more desirable year on year” – Lyndon Bevan, Visit Great Yarmouth chair.
Visit Great Yarmouth has won the green light to continue its work to attract visitors and invest in delivering the best destination experience.
Plans are now under way for events, activities and investment across the Greater Yarmouth area for the next five years after a successful vote by local businesses to back the organisation until 2029.
Key objectives of the Visit Great Yarmouth Business Improvement District (GYTABIA BID) are to bring in more visitors and make Greater Yarmouth’s visitor offer even better so it remains top choice for UK short breaks, holidays and day trips.
Revealing the positive ballot results after the July vote, Visit Great Yarmouth today confirmed that The Wheels Festival will return in 2025.
The event, which attracted 60,000 people to Great Yarmouth seafront in June – the busiest Saturday in six years – is planned to take place on 21st and 22nd June 2025 – aiming to top the more than 900 cars and almost 650 bikes, from classic and sporty to quirky creations, that lined up along the Golden Mile this year.
Weekly summer fireworks at Great Yarmouth and Hemsby will also continue next year. Two Big Wednesdays this summer recorded the highest seafront footfall in the last 10 years.
Next year’s fireworks are expected to start at Hemsby on July 22 and Great Yarmouth on 23 July.
A successful ballot result means Visit Great Yarmouth can continue to raise nearly £500,000 a year from levy payers and additional income sources to inject back into the destination into a range of activities until 2029, including events, marketing the area nationally, regionally and locally and investment to ensure visitors and businesses have the best experience.
Tourism is worth nearly £650 million to the Greater Yarmouth economy and provides more than 13500 jobs. Last year, 7.5million people visited the destination.
Lyndon Bevan, Visit Great Yarmouth chair, said:
“It is wonderful that we now have certainty to continue with our objectives, which are to bring more people to enjoy and explore Great Yarmouth Resort and encourage people to stay longer, come back again and again, visiting more attractions and spending more with local businesses.
Asa Morrison, CEO of Visit Great Yarmouth, said:
“Visit Great Yarmouth is here for businesses to thrive, achieved by us all working together to boost visitor numbers, shaping a unique offer and making our destination more desirable year on year.”
“This fantastic result mean we can continue to work with businesses and organisations across the destination for the next five years to deliver the best experience. Thank you to everyone who voted in favour. We have achieved so much together, and I am thrilled that the ‘yes’ vote means we can continue to build on that work to bring in more people and make our destination even better.
“There is so much we are looking forward to delivering, with exciting collaborations ahead.”
Albert Jones, Managing Director, Pleasure Beach Great Yarmouth, said:
“The Bid renewal is massive for Great Yarmouth not only for the seafront but all the catchment areas within it.
“This has enabled Great Yarmouth and areas to be at forefront in the country when it comes to tourism and what it has to offer to make the town stand out from the rest.
“Without the Bid Great Yarmouth would not be able to compete with other resorts due to council cutbacks and has allowed tourism in the area to increase year on year and allowed Operators like ourselves invest for the future and secure jobs in this very difficult climate.”
Nathan Barnett, general manager, Sea Life Great Yarmouth, said:
“Securing a third term is crucial for the town and the local economy. By continuing this initiative, the town can attract more visitors, increase spending, and drive more business to local traders,” he said.
“The BID’s efforts to enhance the visitor experience, improve satisfaction scores, and promote local attractions are essential for sustaining economic growth and ensuring the prosperity of businesses in the region.”
James Gray, of Hemsby Lost World Adventure Golf, said:
“To secure a third term is fantastic. We can now keep building on the strong foundations we have already laid to make tourism in Greater Yarmouth better than ever.”
Nathan Race, general manager, Bourne Leisure, said:
“This will drive continued investment supporting further growth of our visitor economy within the borough. We have seen excellent visitor numbers and spending levels within the tourism sector in 2024 and the outputs of the BID will support this positive growth.
“It is exciting to be a part of maintaining all the great events that are provided and focus on innovative change for the future. The BID will help to underpin the future of the visitor economy, local employment and a great experience for not only visitors, but also local residents and our valued businesses and attractions.”
Alex Youngs, chief executive, Gorleston Pavilion Trust, said:
“Successfully securing a third BID term is fantastic news for the whole borough of Great Yarmouth as it means we are able to continue funding the absolutely vital work that is essential to the future of our tourism economy.
“The Visit Great Yarmouth team works incredibly hard to create and support fantastic public events, invest in superb facilities throughout the town and raise the profile of our destination through national media promotion and it is a huge relief that the business community have supported this third term to continue delivering these huge benefits to businesses, residents and visitors alike.
“Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and the and the surrounding areas have so much to offer and it’s incredibly exciting to think how much we can flourish with this fresh renewal.”
This year alone, Visit Great Yarmouth has invested more than £450,000 into supporting a wide range of events, extensive marketing and individual projects, including summer fireworks at Hemsby and Great Yarmouth, The Wheels Festival, Great Yarmouth Bowls Festival, the Visit Yarmouth tourism website and the What’s On and Short Breaks guides.
It also funds facilities, maintenance and individual projects, including Filby in Bloom and Caister in Bloom, Great Yarmouth seafront decorative lighting and CCTV maintenance.
The Greater Yarmouth area stretches from north of Hemsby down to Hopton and inland to the Broadland area, capturing Thurne and St Olaves.
Visit Great Yarmouth run by a board of directors from local businesses who work on a voluntary basis.
