The seaside is now a place of last resort

Hit by a dearth of tourists as well as political neglect, our once-loved tourist towns are locked in a doom spiral

- Martha Gill

Ever since the British invented the seaside resort in the 18th century, Americans have been dropping by to comment on it. “I have never felt more alien in Britain than when I was watching people enjoying their sort of seaside vacation,” wrote Paul Theroux of Morecambe in the 1980s. Last week, a US comedian, Russell Hicks, said of Brighton: “There was no sand, just rocks and glass while everybody sat in knitwear crying in the rain.” Brits like to defend their sideways wind, sandy hard-boiled eggs and ancient pirate-themed arcades. Morecambe came up with bingo, lettered rock and the helter skelter; Margate first trialled the deckchair; Southend, Clevedon and Brighton are known for their Victorian piers.

Nostalgia colours our view of the seaside, but a swathe of statistics tells us we are, in reality, catching up with our American friends. Coastal resorts have been in decline since the package holiday became popular in the 1970s, and cheap flights have accelerated the trend. It was briefly arrested by Covid; now it looks terminal. The UK lost £640m in domestic tourism spending between 2024 and 2025 - and it’s down £1.4bn since 2022.