Key Tourism Facts

Wealden is the largest of the East Sussex districts and boroughs, covering 323 square miles. There are 143,000 people living in the small market towns, villages and countryside.

Tourism is extremely important to Wealden’s economy; it supports a wide range of businesses and services for local people, and enhances the environmental characteristics of the area.

Tourism figures for Wealden were released by Tourism South East reporting that during 2009 tourism in Wealden generated just over £280 million pounds worth of income for local businesses, up by 7.3% compared to 2008.

Income from tourism supported an estimated 4,700 jobs representing 10.2% of all jobs in the district.

Why Visitors Come

90% of visitors to Wealden are day visitors. The 10% who stay overnight are mainly on leisure trips (rather than business). These overnight trips are predominantly made by UK residents and they are most likely to be staying with friends and relatives.

Accommodation

Overall, an estimated 473,000 staying trips were taken in 2009, with guests spending an average £142.00 per person. Of all visits, 84% were made by domestic visitors and (16%) by overseas visitors (16%). Compared to 2008, domestic overnight trips grew by 5.8% and visitors from abroad dropped by 1.3%.

2009 saw a significant trend in visitors looking to save costs by opting for caravan/camping/self-catering holidays or staying with friends and relatives.

There are a large number of small accommodation businesses within the District:

116 serviced establishments providing 910 bedrooms with average annual room occupancies of 45% for hotels, up to 60% for pubs and around 50% for B&Bs.
139 self-catering units, mostly single units with occupancy between 30% and 50%.
23 touring caravan and camp sites providing 993 pitches, with high weekend, but very seasonal, occupancy.
9 holiday parks most at their licensed capacity.

Wealden has similar tourism trends to the regional picture which shows an overall decrease in trips attributed to the onset of the recession in 2008. For Wealden between 2005 and 2008:

Domestic trips fell by 6%
Overseas trips increased by 1%
Day trips fell by 2%
Overnight visitor spending increased by 4% (mostly because of inflation)
Day visitor spending fell by 2%.

Attractions

Approximately 5,730,000 day trips were made (lasting more than 3 hours and taken on an irregular basis) during 2009 generating an additional £167 million pounds of revenue.

There are around 60 visitor attractions in Wealden. Apart from the National Trust properties, visitor numbers are relatively low at each site (under 40,000 per year). There are some major attractions bordering Wealden which includes a cluster of National Trust properties to the north and west.