Geography - Tourism - UK Tourism - Holiday Resort - Blackpool CASE STUDY

Blackpool CASE STUDY

Background Blackpool started out as a fishing village and originally , pre 1720, the only visitors to Blackpool were rich visitors who would ride on the beaches and bathe in the sea. In 1735 Blackpool's first guest house was opened for such visitors. Popularity grew and in 1780 there were 4 hotels and activities such as bowling greens and archery available. The main attraction was the sea though, with many people wishing to merely walk along the sea front and "take the air" as well as many bathing in the sea as it was seen as healthy to do so. However tourism at this point was only reserved for the very wealthy as these were the only people with the time or money to travel. This was until the Victorian-era when the first railway in the area opened in 1846 which meant thousands of day-trippers would visit every day.

Developing a tourist industry From the 1850's Blackpool built many tourist attractions to entice visitors to come such as the Promenade along the sea front, the North Pier, the Road Assembly rooms and the Royal Theatre. In 1878 the Winter Gardens were built, it was the first indoor activities centre in Britain. In 1894 the Blackpool Tower was built, I was 158m tall (the tallest building in Britain). Blackpool was also the first seaside town to have 3 piers. The Blackpool Illuminations also bought in a lot of people. By this point tourism here was not reserved solely for the wealthy, many working class families were able to save up for a day trip to the seaside. Therefore attractions were built to accommodate this such as Central Pier which opened with open air dancing for the working classes. From there a rapid growth of development ensued (7 million people visited each year in 1930), attractions and facilities were being built constantly, this continued up till around the 1940's Blackpool and its many attractions allowed working class Britons a break from their usual labours and a chance to let lose and have fun. This meant that these people would save up whatever money they could just for one trip

Showing Signs of Decline After the war people had more time and disposable income which lead to even more people taking holidays. However from the 1940's-70's very little was done in the way of new development. By this point new seaside towns had taken a leaf from Blackpool's book and began to develop themselves into tourists resorts as well. This meant less people were coming to Blackpool. On top of this by the late 70's air travel was becoming much cheaper and more accessible to the public, this also saw the increase in popularity of cheap package holidays. Both of these things became massive threats to Blackpool. As tourism began to decline as the did the local economy which meant people began to lose their jobs and there was a increasing socio-economic decline. So in an effort to entice more visitors to come Blackpool lowered its prices. However this meant there was a rise in Hen and Stag weekends and group of teenagers and young adults visiting. This in turn lead to a rise in antisocial behaviour, damaging Blackpool's reputation and image of being a family friendly resort.

The Future of Blackpool Many things have been done in an effort to bring Blackpool back up to being with the times, the main one being a rejuvenation project started by the council. They have planned for: 26,700 new jobs being created £2.2bn of new capital to be invested 400,000 square metres of retail, casino, leisure, conference, office and air port development 5,700 new homes to be built 7m additional visitors each year 127 hectares of brownfield sites will be re-developed Most recently the coastal defence scheme was completed, costing £80m ad covering 3.2 of the Blackpool seafront.