Sun, sea and Salcombe - staycation Brits head South

Northern seaside resorts might have some of the best beaches in the country but it is still resorts in the South that are dominating Brits’ staycation plans as Covid continues make consumers wary of overseas travel.

With Government data finding that 68% of Brits are still opting for staycations this Bank Holiday weekend and are not yet comfortable with foreign trips, Brits have been quizzed on their favourite UK seaside towns.

The survey by McCarthy Stone reveals the South Coast’s came out on top overall, with Salcombe, Weymouth and St Ives scoring highly; Yorkshire’s Whitby and Northumberland’s Bamburgh are the only Northern towns to make the top 10.

Salcombe, with its pastel-hued, picturesque harbour, came out on top, with almost a fifth of the vote (18.5%); Weymouth in Dorset came second with 16%. Boasting several enviable beaches, Weymouth was announced as the number one beach in the UK in the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards 2017, and has also previously been ranked ninth best beach in Europe.

Third place was given to Whitby in North Yorkshire (12%), which boasts ties with Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the imposing Abbey ruins which look over the highly-voted harbour below.

St Ives on the Cornish coast came fourth with 11.7% of the voting with Bamburgh (10.4%) in the North East of the country completing the top five.

Meanwhile Cromer in Norfolk, Shanklin on the Isle of Wight, Deal in Kent, Worthing in West Sussex, and Hastings in East Sussex complete the top ten.

According to a separate study by eBay Ads UK, the revival of the great British staycation will be here to stay.

Having had very few options for holidaying anywhere else until recently, a third (33%) of UK consumers say they have rediscovered a love of going on holiday in the UK in the past year, while almost half (47%) say they see themselves holidaying in the UK more in the future.

The study finds that UK staycations encourage Brits to take more active breaks – with over a third (38%) of consumers reporting that they are more active when they holiday in the UK compared to going abroad.

TOPICS:data-driven marketing tourism travel and leisure