Many seaside places in the UK have become a little run down and unloved. Like many businesses become.
People bemoan this, complaining that people book their summer holiday in places like Spain or Greece.
The fact is, like anything in life, you have to keep innovating if you want to be successful in attracting the crowd and stop people going elsewhere. People say they can’t compete with the weather.
Then you have to think differently, you need to create something different, new, exciting, and then you need to market it to the right audience. Not everyone wants just a hot sunny beach. So target those people.
Many places, business and people have sat, trying to compete with someone or something else, by doing the same and trying to do it cheaper. Or simple doing what they have always done, hoping that there are still some people who like that.
Be bold, don’t try to replicate others at a lower price. Simply because others will replicate it and do it cheaper. Don’t aim for the bottom, the mass.
Aim for different, special, and never worry about the price. If you create something that people want, rather than need, then price will never be an issue.
Fish & chips and arcades will not bring people flooding back to the British sea side on it’s own, unless it’s the very best fish & chips or an arcade with something different.
Margate, for example is doing different, it brought in the Turner art museum, and up sprung art galleries, new B&B’s, a different style of restaurants. Now the place is seeing a real renaissance. It is attracting a different audience.
They have thought outside the box and dared to do something new. They have realised that they can not compete for sun and sand, however, they can offer something Spain or Greece can’t and that is why people go there.
If seaside towns want more business, and prosperity, then be bold, and stop offering the same things that have not worked for decades.
Deliver a truly unique experience, like Margate has chosen to do.
Philip Dodson 