Tourism Provides 4,600 Jobs in Wealden

Economic impact figures released in October 2009 by Tourism South East indicate that during 2008 tourism activity in Wealden generated just over £261 million of income for local usinesses, a small increase of 0.5% compared to 2005.

The study entitled - ‘The Economic Impact of Tourism - Wealden 2008’ highlights a number of key headline figures for the year. These key headline figures have been compiled from using 'The Cambridge Model', a well utilised tourism industry measurement tool, and for the purpose of assessing the economic impact of tourism in a given area. It produces estimates from existing national and local information (eg: accommodation stocks, inbound trips) on the level of tourism activity within a given local area.

For Wealden, the results are as follows:

452,000 staying trips, of which 377,000 were domestic overnight trips (83%) and 75,000 were inbound trips (17%). Compared to 2005, these figures represent a 6.2% drop in the volume of domestic overnight trips and a 1.4% increase in the volume of
inbound trips.
£63,529,000 spent by staying visitors on their trip, an increase in nominal terms of 4.3% since 2005.
5,310,000 tourism day trips, a small drop of 1.6% in volume compared to 2005.
£156,627,000 spent by tourism day visitors on their trip, a reduction in expenditure of 1.6%.
In total £220,157,000 spent by all visitors on their trip in 2008, almost the same as in 2005.
Of this expenditure, £202,211,000 directly benefits local business in terms of direct business turnover.
In addition, expenditure by friends and relatives on visitors, and visitors spend on second homes (i.e. maintenance) generates a further £13,372,000.
A further £45,462,000 of business turnover is generated through indirect and induced spending
In total, tourism activity generated £261,045,000 worth of income for local businesses, a small increase of 0.5% compared to 2005.
This income supported 4,298 FTE jobs and 6,036 actual jobs.
The Office of National Statistics employment figures drawn from the Annual Business Inquiry shows that an estimated 4,600 jobs in Wealden are in tourism and tourism-related businesses, representing 10.2% of all employee jobs in the District.