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Each year South Hams District Council (SHDC) commission a tourism report from South West Research Company. Nita Jarram, the Senior Economic Support Officer at the Council has shared with us the latest report from 2024 which shows that visitor numbers were down last year – see it here: South Hams 2024.pdf along with the month by month impacts: App 2 2024 – The Year in Context.pdf
The South West Research Company has also produced a spreadsheet showing comparative data going back to 2005 (although there are a few years missing – namely 2014-2018 and 2021). This offers an insight into how the industry has changed over the years. Nita has kindly put together a summary of the data for us below and on behalf of SHDC, has committed to, “We will continue to work with key partners and organisations across the region to identify ways to support the visitor economy. We are also planning a Tourism Symposium in early 2026, further details on this will be sent out in due course.”
South Hams Summary:
In terms of staying visitors, domestic trips, nights and spend in the South Hams all saw decreases in 2024 compared to 2023 (-6%, -5% and -4% respectively) and whilst overseas trips were also down by -6%, overseas nights and spend saw increases of 6% in each case. This means slightly fewer overseas visitors to the area but staying for longer on their visit.
Whilst day visits are also estimated to have decreased by -7% in 2024 compared to 2023 spend fared much better (-1%) and was broadly similar to the previous year.
Overall, for all visitors (staying plus day) trips were down by -7%, largely influenced by decreases in domestic visitor activity, particularly day visits which account for the large majority of tourism visits. The decrease in tourism spend was smaller at -2%.
National Summary:
Domestic overnight trips and nights in Great Britain dropped by 10% in 2024, when compared to 2023. This was largely due to a decrease in holiday trips (-13%). Spend however increased by 5%.
In terms of overseas visits to the UK trips increased by 6%, nights by 1% and spend by 5% compared to 2023. Day visits decreased by 12% nationally although spend was estimated to have increase by 5% compared to 2024.
Considering the above, performance across Devon was broadly influenced by national trends in visitor activity although not in terms of domestic staying and day visitor expenditure. This is likely to be due to the area being heavily reliant on the more traditional holiday / days out rather than some of the more high spending activities seen in other areas of the UK.
It may also be of interest to view a regional comparison report here: Regional comparisons 24.pdf and if you would like the raw data then please get in touch.
