The number of visitors to the Isle of Wight was up 10% in the second quarter (Q2) of this year (April to June), with those visiting spending more too.
Unfortunately, the loss of Bestival, along with a very wet summer, has meant the third quarter (Q3) figures are lower than the same period in 2016 (more here).
Lots of positives
There were 730,874 visitors in Q2, that’s a rise of 10% from the year before and meant there have been 1,086,245 visitors between January and June 2017 (up 4%).
Total visitor spend in that second quarter amounted to a whopping £95.2 million!
This is a rise of 4% on the previous year and 20% of those visitors were also first timers.
Singing in the rain
As we said, the third quarter figures are not good. Visit IW CEO, David Thornton, told OnTheWight he’s working his way through the latest data sheets and is planning to put together a detailed report next week.
In the meantime, he was able to shed a little light on the drop in visitors over the summer.
There’s a Norwegian saying, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”. It may seem a long time ago now, but cast your mind back to the school summer holidays and you may well remember there was rain, rain and yet more rain.
Loss of festival-goers
Bestival deciding to leave the Isle of Wight is undoubtedly another reason for the drop in numbers.
The early September festival attracted more than 20,000+ extra people on the ferries, which contributed to the loss of about 40,000 visitors over the summer compared to last year.
Highest ever first timers
However, there was some good news, one in five visitors this summer were first timers, that’s the highest ever.
If they were impressed with what they saw, there should be return visits in future years.
Northerners staying close to home
The Isle of Wight’s loss appears to have been the gain for Whitby, Scarborough, Blackpool and other northern resorts who all reported an uplift.
However, South East region as a whole was over 20% down in early summer and David Thornton does point out that Torquay was down 5% down this summer.
It looks as though the Island’s drop in numbers is following the trend other southern coastal resorts experienced too.
Visit Isle of Wight will have more detail next week.
Image: © Visit Isle of Wight
