Figures show that 3.5 million trips to Suffolk’s county town were made in 2016 alone, almost 340,000 of them involving hotels and other accommodation.
It all adds up to an economic boom, with a cool £182 million being spent by visitors in shops, restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels and on other tourism services. Add what the industry calls “indirect spend” and the value of tourism to the Ipswich economy nudges a quarter of a billion pounds.
Tourism has other benefits, too, supporting 4,800 jobs (almost 3,600 of them full-time) – that is 7.6% of the local workforce.
The trends are up: there was a 2.5% rise in day trips to Ipswich (from 3,034,000 in 2015 to 3,110,000 in 2016. And while the total overnight stays remained fairly static, visitors are staying longer: 1,146,000 nights in fact!
David Ellesmere, the Leader of Ipswich Borough Council, welcomed the latest statistics. “As county town, Ipswich enjoys many advantages, with more and more people using us a base to explore the historic town and surrounding countryside. We have a thriving entertainment and leisure scene and also a bustling town centre, beautiful parks, three museums and a stunning Waterfront and the facts speak for themselves. There is clearly a demand for more holiday accommodation and we have just approved plans for a new hotel close to the railway station.”
The Borough Council runs an ambitious summer events programme attracting tens of thousands of visitors and hopes this, and the success of many Regent Theatre sell-outs, will help boost figures for this year.
The statistics are contained in the latest Economic Impact of Tourism report 2016 produced by destination Research.
