Call for more tourism cash as visitor numbers fall

Overall visitor numbers in North East Lincolnshire in 2024 fell slightly compared with the previous year

Council officials in North East Lincolnshire say more investment is needed to boost tourism in the region after a slight fall in visitor numbers.

A meeting of the council's economy, culture and tourism scrutiny panel heard tourism was worth an estimated £724m to the region in 2024, despite the council only spending £38,000 on its visitor economy team budget.

It also heard there were 8.6 million visitors to the region in 2024, slightly down on the previous year, and well below the pre-pandemic 2019 figure of 10.3 million.

Councillor Steve Holland said it was no reflection on the work of the tourism team, but added: "I feel we're missing a trick here somewhere."

He added: "My concern is there's not the resources to explore what we're seeing here, £38,000 is a tiny budget for the potential return on it."

Holland suggested increasing the size of the team by two as part of a pilot scheme.

Meanwhile, Spencer Hunt, the council's assistant director for safer and stronger places, added: "I think there is some acknowledgement that we need to grow our provision."

However, Helen Thompson, the council's strategic lead for tourism, said other factors also needed to be considered.

She said the weather in July and August last year was "absolutely awful", and the trend for resorts like Cleethorpes was downwards.

However, she said the data for this year so far was looking more "favourable".

The scrutiny panel agreed a recommendation to cabinet that it was concerned "that a lack of resource may be impacting tourism potential", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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