Current issues

While some British seaside resorts thrive, others are less successful. The latter could learn much from the experi- ence of their counterparts across the English Channel, not least the advan- tage of curbing traffic and of making more of Sunday which, on the Euro- pean continent, is the great day for eating out. With residents as well as visitors in mind, British resorts should anticipate rising expectations and, guided by market research, concentrate on amenities of ever-higher quality. Ex- amples are taken from the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France which in- dicate how some British resorts might improve their prospects.

Charles Owen is Principal of the Tourism by Design consultancy and an established travel writer. He may be contacted at 25 Montagu Street, London WlH lTB, UK.

‘English Seaside Resorts, a Preliminary report for the English Tounst Board, Charles Owen and Susan Raes. Tourism by Design, London, 30 November 1984. *The author carried out field research for this article in summer 1990 In Brighton, Weston-super-Mare, Ostend and Knokke and in summer-autumn 1989 in Deauville and Scheveningen. Dieppe, Boulogne/Le Touquet and the other English and Welsh resorts named in the article were already well known to him.

Better days at the seaside Can UK resorts learn from European experience?

Charles Owen

I keep hearing about the renaissance

of seaside resorts in the UK. How

much of this is tourist board ‘hype”?

On recent visits to the Kent and Sus-

sex coasts it seemed on the face of it

that not much has changed since 108-l

when, with architect Susan Raes. I researched a selection of southeastern

resorts for the English Tourist Board

(ETB).’ In several respects British

seaside resorts in general still seem

run down and set in their ways. They

lack sparkle.

Blackpool is thriving and Torbay is

newly buoyant and both are promising

examples of what vigorous market-led

drives can do. The good looks of

Scarborough and Llandudno and the toytown charm of Aldeburph and

Broadstairs. Penarth and St Ives are

also good news - and for all their

faults. my own favourites among the

larger and more vigorous traditional

UK resorts, Brighton and Weston- super-Mare, will always beckon.

But even the star turns lack the

quality and variety of attractions to be found just across the English Channel

at. eg Scheveningen (Netherlands),

Knokke and Ostend (Belgium). BoulogneiLe Touquet, Dieppe and Deauville (France). What do these

places have that eludes their British counterparts’? Certainly not better

weather - what could be bleaker than

a north-facing vista of the North Sea?’

The main difference is one of atti-

tude. Resorts in continental Europe

aim to part their vi‘ritors from their

money by doing their good humoureci best to please them according to their

appetites and, if possible. above their

expectations. 1Vhile for their part. the

visitors set out in poGti\e mood to

enjoy the resort’s amenities and ambi-

ence. particularly itb eating and drink-

ing facilities.

Why in the UK c!o we appear not to

appreciate more that the way to the

tourist’s heart is more often than not

through his stomach. but with some

pleasure gained via his other senses

too, and in an atmosphere a cut above

everyday life’? If UK heaside resorts

cared about their imaze in this re-

spect, they would do something about

the abysmally low quality of most

municipally-run cafeterias. The local authorities concerned mipht decide

whether, as caterers. they are provid- ing an institutionalized social service

for low-spending benior citizens and

children or whether thrv are in busi-

ness to offer an attraction for the kind

of visitor their resort needs to build up

a reputation and sain more revenue.

Not that the a~erags private sector seaside pub or cafe in the UK has

190 TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1990

‘It seems our seaside resorts have remained frozen in a 1950s insularity’

much to write home about. On a showery Sunday last autumn in Scheveningen. all the seafront cafes and restaurants were open for busi- ness. Both indoors and outdoors, the full array of tables and chairs were in position. The menus were varied and appetising and in most cases the cus- tomers were waiter-served wherever they sat.

In British resorts, seating with a view, whether streetside behind glass or in the open air, and table service of drinks and snacks at any level below four-star, are hard to find - and the few tables and seats which sometimes make a reluctant appearance outside in hot weather are often grubby and decrepit. In these respects, it seems our seaside resorts have remained frozen in a 1950s insularity, as though not yet free of post-war rationing and austerity.

As for Sunday - for the continental Europeans, this is the great family day out, every cafe and restaurant at full stretch, every amenity in commission. In the UK, many more car-loads would presumably make for the sea- side on a Sunday if the same experi- ence awaited them - the chance to enjoy a professionally presented meal in a convivial ambience at a moderate service-included price.

Then across the English Channel there is the casino. at its busiest at the weekend, and increasingly a popular attraction though still with its lingering aura of glamour and sophistication. Many of the shops stay open, the smarter ones reflecting the bourgeois tastes which are to an extent the hall- mark of foreign resorts. The yacht marina, a late-comer to most British resorts, offers strollers another nin- dow on a world of style and opulence.

The promenades and beaches are usually clean and well-maintained, often fenced neatly into sections to cater for various tastes, from pay-as- you-go children’s pastimes to shel- tered semi-private areas for sitting or sunbathing, the whole punctuated and enlivened by the wide choice of invit- ing eat-and-drink venues. And the choice is sufficiently varied to appeal to every class and every age, produc- ing a gregarious mixture of people, the meanderers oblivious to the watchful

TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1990

eyes of the onlookers in the cafes and brasseries. and the ‘guzzlers’ in the smarter restaurants content to down their victuals under the appraising gaze of the meanderers.

And the traffic - the pressure of road traffic is a universal blight and parking a car close to where its passen- gers want to go is seldom easy. But if traffic and people are to be separated. as they should be, the seafront of a seaside resort is one place where this should be achieved. In Deauville. part of the seafront road system is incorpo- rated in a large pay carpark, and on some of the other roads. effectively cul-de-sacs, ‘speed bumps’ discourage speeding and through traffic, while in Ostend and Scheveningen the main stretches of seafront are traffic free.

Brighton rendezvous

Little ever changes in Brighton. At the railway station a well-hidden notice explains that the nearest tourist in- formation office is in Old Steine which proves to be half a mile away. To the stranger, the bus information in the station forecourt is indecipherable. The road towards the seafront. Queens Road, is undistinguished. its narrow pavements cluttered with the overflow from second-rate shops and cafes.

To cross to the Kings Road seaside promenade one must wait at barri- caded traffic lights or endure the grime and graffiti of an unwelcoming subway. The lower promenade, on a level with the beach, is backed bx a row of arches giving shelter to a batch of services of disappointing quality. These include ice cream and souvenir stalls and some self-service cafes with a few well-worn tables and chairs on the pavement outside. The approaches to the surviving pier, Palace Pier, have also seen better days.

Worst of all is the damage done over the years to Brighton’s once- extensive and unique frontage. squares and terraces of Georgian and Victorian buildings, the local council’s own Brighton Centre being one of the least compatible intrusions. The dense and noisy traffic along Kings Road. including heavy articulated lorries. much of it through-traffic, creates a

191

Currenr issues

harrier between these buildings and efficient road system off centre and

their original raisc~,l tl‘Prrr. the sea. intercit!. nith adequate central-area

The effect is to make Brighton feel as parking f:lcilities, the continental

urban as London. The Brighton European motorist accepts the >itua-

Borough Plan for 1990 appears to tion without rancour and adju~rs to

ignore the seafront traffic and offers the restrictions.

little hope for North Street. the main

thoroughfare at the town centre. Sub-

ject to detailed study (sic). semi- Resort management

pedestrianization is to be introduced One English resort where the road

for adjoining Old Steine, the east\vnrd traffic is not too destructive is \Ve>ton-

‘Too many resorts still extension, St James’s Street. and n super-Xlare. The rail\\aq station and

sequence of minor streets. These its environs are suburban in charrlcter

try vaguely to be all cosmetic changes. with improvements

things to everyone and in to the shopping centre. are to be \vel-

corned but where are the flichts of

the end please none’ imagination today to match those of

the Prince Regent of yore?

i

Consider New Road, on which

stands the Theatre Royal. and the

sheltered lawns before it with their

glimpses of Old Steine beyond the

Royal Pavilion. Here. served by the

restaurants which already flank the

theatre, supplemented by new cater-

ing outlets built against the back \valls

of the Dome and the Corn Exchanpe,

a convivial and aesthetically accept-

able food-court arrangement of semi-

outdoor cafes and brasseries could be

created at small expense. This would

provide a cosmopolitan rendezvous

for locals and visitors. potentially the

most popular (and profitable) meeting

place on the whole UK south coast.

and the town is architecturalI\ unex-

citing. but the seafront. flanking one

of Europe’s finest hard-sand beaches.

is spacious and inviting. Its twin ro,ld>

seem to be spared heave throurh-

traffic and. except at pe:tk t;mes. there

is enouph car parking >pace for >hop-

pers as \vell as visitors.

Any self-respecting continental

European resort would lonp since

have created its own equivalent attrac-

tion. just as it would long since have

dealt with its seafront and town-centre

traffic problems. Consider Ostend.

less architecturally blessed than

Brighton. relaxed seaside port \vhich

successfully mixes business with plea-

sure and whose inhabitants include

enough bourgeoisie of affluence to

demand high quality services and ame-

nities. Here, despite all the pressures

on a concentrated community, the

main promenade and a large area of

adjoining streets are pedestrinnized.

and in the town generally. berthed

yachts seem to be as much in evidence

as motor vehicles.

Where does all the traffic go? When

the vehicle driver is no longer king. it

hardly seems to matter. With the

needs and priorities of pedestrians

understood and respected. with an

The natural setting of the ha! ih

striking and the resort‘s ambient ib

invigorating. On Knightstone Rand.

facing the hea. is the nearest I h_lte

seen in Britain to a Continental e\-

perience - ;I row of hotels and guc‘st-

houses tvith side-by-side front terr;lces

offering ;I selection of nl fresco c;frer-

ing. This is ;I welcome development

despite the undistinpuished gastrc>no-

mic standards here and elsewhere in

Weston. Then, on the beach are se\er-

aI enclosures with supervised

sidesho\vs and play areas. plus s\\im-

ming pools, piers. horse and donke!

rides and +I growing number of in-

creasingly sophisticated attraction>.

The development of n large new con-

ference and shopping centre just bs-

hind the scafront i5 among the orher

signs of Weston’s belief in its future.

While Weston is. clearly, markst-

orientated. the same has not been [rue

over the !‘ears of the general run of

British seaside resorts. Too many of

them. repenting the same formula a\

in previous seasons, still try vagueI! to

be all things to everyone and in the

end mav please none. If councillorz

and their officers cannot open their

minds to new possibilities. including

the achie\,ements of equivalenr

foreign raorts. perhaps they could bs

readier to delegate more of their pow-

ers and functions outside their o\in

bureaucracy’?

While the local authority ought to

continue as landlord to safeguard irs

192 TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1990

‘While some resorts know exactly where they are going, others may have lost their way’

3Tourism in Action, English Tourist Board, April 1990. 40p tit, Ref 1. ‘Eg Scheveningen (seafront. adjoining square, food court), Knokke (squares by the seafront), Ostend (Wapenplein), Boulogne (main street), Dieppe (by the port) and, in the summer, Deauville (sea- front).

community’s main tourism and leisure

assets, it should eet out of the hus~nrss

of management and marketing of

attractions. from theatres and confer-

ence halls to sun-lounges and

cafeterias. The tourism officer of a

resort could answer to an entre-

peneuriallq-inclined but heritage-

conscious consortium of local interests

and not merely to the town hall. Xnd

the local authority should be guided

by a long-term marketing and de-

velopment strategy prepared for it b)

imaginative professional consultants.

Stephen &tills, ETBs Assistant

Director of Development. holds that

‘seaside resorts were developed Lvith a

certain style and have a heritage \vhich

ma]. be set for a comeback‘. But

Neil Cossons. Director of the Science

Museum. maintains that ‘we need

strategic solutions embracing high

quality. low volume and high added

value’.” Conflict‘? Not necessarily.

While some resorts know exactI>

where they are going. others ma) have lost their way. Which is the best

route?

For a start. before selecting their

markets. hesitant resorts mipht well

ask whether they should accept that

their cla!s as a holiday destination are

numbered. Xlight they not be better

off if some so-called resorts cared less

about amusing or. possibly. boring

their tourists and more for satisfkins

their residents’? Is a community com-

prised largely of commuters and senior citizens viable? Is the resort

potentially attractive to the more dis-

criminating hisher-spending type of

resident. and suited to the advent of

the better standard of shop and res-

taurant and the sprucer environment

espectrd by such residents’? L\‘hat

priority should be given to the confer-

ence trade and to the soliciting of

inward investment by industrialists.

hoteliers and good-class leisure de-

velopers’? Relatively upmarket styles

of this kind can presumably co-exist

happily bvith a more ‘popular’ image.

bearing in mind that one sector of a resort has often been ‘smarter’ than

the other - Deauville than Trouville

(France). Het Zoute than Knokke

(Belgium). Torquhy than Paipnton and Hove than Brighton (UK). If this kind of segregation is to be encour-

TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1990

aged, as it appears to be In continental

Europe. will USC’ of the price mechan-

ism be enough to achieve It’!

Eating out

Another important question is what to

do in the UK about Sundays. and ho\\

to provide for and stimulate the

eating-out habit that brings so much

vitality (and profit) to resorts on the

other side of the English Channel.

One suggestion In the 19S-l ETB

report was that in Ea~tbnurne and

Portsmouth there are natural locations

for the type of eat-and-drink meeting

place or parade (ivhich this article

recognizes in ~~‘eston-super-Claire and

moots for Brighton). and that H,lzt-

ings be promoted as a Ieadinp seafood

gastronomic centre ha& partI\ on

the provision of popular new on-beach

catering in the fishing-bo,it area and

partly on the surprisingI! acids range

of restaurant> and cafes on or near the seafront which alread! offer fi\h

dishes on their menus. i

Street-side or beach-side or

hnrbour-side catering. \\ hether in clus-

ters. as proposed for Brighton. or in

ones and tivos. can be successful in

quite simple premises offering a goad

\iew of the passing scene with good-

quality but unpretentious menus

served at the customer\’ tables b\

competent and well-mannered staff.

To judge by the large number of such

outlets and the cheerful family parties

using many of them on Sundays. this

activity appears to. and can be

afforded by people at all levels of

income on the near European conti-

nent. A study by resort leaders of

some nearby Continental esample~ of

popular seaside catering on this scale

could be \vorthwhile.’

The most important lesson for the

UK from the European continent is

that in tourism. leisure and recreation,

today’s lo\v-spending young man and

\voman in the street are already.

potentially, in taste and purchasing pobver. members of tomorrow’s bourgeoisie. The fate of some of

Spain’s costas is proof enough that it

never pays to play doun IO the lowest

common denominator. Someone’s self-esteem \vill be punctured and

memories of a bad experience are

193

194

long. Expectations are always rising succzs5ful seaside resorts hakr got thi,

and. to say the least, people on a spree message. and are applying it to rheir seek a distraction rather above their resident5 ah well 3s to their visitors,

everyday lot at home. they ma> be on their ua)’ to better When those who run the UK;‘s less days.

TOURISM MANAGEMENT September 1990