Cornwall risks pricing itself out of the holiday market: Shock closure of two theme parks, plummeting visitor numbers and empty rentals suggests love affair is over with trips to Spain and Florida costing less
Is 2024 the year that tourists began to turn their backs on Cornwall?
The past 12 months has been chastening for the famously picturesque county, home to Poldark and famous faces including Gordon Ramsay, Dawn French, Andrew Ridgeley, Harry Enfield, Richard and Judy, Fern Britton and many more.
A fortnight ago Flambards and Dairyland – two cherished Cornish tourist destinations and both staples for local families for decades – both shut down in the space of two hours.
Flambards in Helston, famed for its Victorian village and rides such as its much-loved ‘demon drop slide’ and Hornet rollercoaster, has been shuttered with little more than its soft play centre surviving citing ‘a steady decline in visitor numbers’.
The outgoing boss of Cornwall’s tourist board has described 2024 as the ‘flattest year’ he can remember in approaching three decades, with visitor numbers down in every quarter in a county well-known for the eye-watering price of accommodation.
Another expert has said that this year had been ‘absolutely abysmal’ for Cornish tourism, with holiday lets empty and caravan parks admitting they were not full in the school holidays for the first time in 25 years.
Businesses are backing a nascent ‘Survive 25’ campaign, urging people to support Cornish businesses fearing they may not be trading by the end of next year due to the dire situation.
What is the reason for Cornwall’s decline? Many Britons say they are voting with their feet because it is cheaper to fly to European destinations like the Costa del Sol for a better value holiday in a place with 325 days of sunshine in the year.
In fact the cost of a half term holiday to Florida next February can be cheaper than a week in St Ives, MailOnline can reveal today – even including a transatlantic flight at around £500-per-head.
The cost of meals out, drinks and ice creams are also cheaper, on average, abroad when compared to Cornwall, according to cost of living data. Britons say they are turning to Wales and North Yorkshire over Cornwall, where takeaway fish-and-chips for a family of four can easily be more than £50 – before any drinks.
A comparison of prices shows that the cost of a holiday to Malaga is cheaper in most areas
Aside from the cost of flying there, a holiday to Orlando can also be cheaper that Cornwall with families weighing up the two
Mumsnet, one of the UK’s busiest online forums, recently had a thread on whether people would choose Cornwall or the Caribbean because the price is now comparable.
Una in St Ives, a much-heralded new luxury resort for the county, collapsed into administration in October.
Hostile locals have also been blamed for the decline in visitor numbers.
Some famously call visitors ’emmets’, Cornish for ants, and in recent years signs saying ’emmets go home’ have cropped up while ‘die emmets’ was even painted on the welcome sign to the town of Hayle.
Locals are rightly angry that families have been pushed out of towns, ripping the heart out of communities, leaving behind scores of cottages, flats and houses to lie empty for months every year.
But tourists have said that hostility to visitors has got out of hand – and is putting them off coming back.
One woman who visited St Ives recently said she was shocked when she got in a taxi and the driver spent the journey ‘moaning’ about tourists while taking her hard earned cash to drive her to her accommodation after she had been out for an expensive meal.
Another tourist named Carole said: ‘It’s not just about the price of everything; more the animosity towards holidaymakers that I find off putting.’.
And a third, Helen: ‘We came down for the weekend for an event. The cost of renting somewhere now is so expensive. I did a compare and its cheaper to go for a week in Spain or Portugal, including food, than to rent a two-bed place for a week in Padstow’.
A crude 6ft long banner – written in black paint on a white board – was held aloft by three people to welcome tourists to Cornwall
An anti-emmets message on the sign entering Hayle. Emmets are Cornish for ants – and slang for tourists
One local on a St Ives Facebook group said: ‘Stop moaning about emmets. Lower your prices. £2,000 for a caravan. No sun. You made a mint in staycation for 2 years. Now people want £500 sunny holidays abroad, cheap booze’.
He added: ‘You could go on an all inclusive cruise to the Caribbean for 14 days for this price’.
Cornwall has more than 14,000 second homes and many were in use or rented out for much of the year during and after the pandemic as Britain and the world suffered travel restrictions.
But as the world has opened up again, tourists have not returned in such huge numbers this year.
In recent decades swathes of Cornwall have gone from being a traditional bucket and spade-style beach destinations to Britain’s version of St Tropez and the Côte d’Azur – without the better weather.
Today the county has four restaurants with one Michelin Star, a plethora of gastro pubs and the cost of the great Cornish crab sandwich can easily reach £15 to £20 each in exclusive areas.
Gone are many of the traditional sweet and seasonal shops selling postcards, crab lines, buckets, spades and ice creams.
Now there are many more cafes, delis selling cheeses, meats and cakes and stores containing handmade gifts and art.
This artisan life comes at a price.
The average price for a self-catering accommodation in Cornwall per night is between £170 and £200 – but high-end properties can easily charge between £5,000 and £14,000 per week in high season.
Flambards Theme Park in Helston has closed, citing rising costs and a ‘steady decline in visitor numbers’
Dairyland Farm Park ceased trading after 49 years in operation earlier this month
Next February, when millions of parents and grandparents will take families away for half term, a week in an average Airbnb in Gwithian will be £1,374 per week compared to £931 for a same-sized property in Malaga.
The price for an Airbnb of the same standard in Orlando is £1,281.
Carbis Bay, the exclusive village near St Ives which hosted the G7 summit of world leaders, also has an exclusive five-star hotel and resort where a room can easily be £450-a-night or at peak times.
MailOnline can reveal that in Malaga in the 2025 February half term a room only deal in a five-star resort is around £210-a-night and £215-a-night in Florida.
A great deal of second homes in Cornwall are now on the market as second homeowners offload properties ahead of changes which could quadruple their council tax bills.
Many successful holiday lets are struggling, with owners now plumping for a long let for a local at the moment because people just aren’t booking.
The beautiful area around Truro, the gateway to western Cornwall and nestled at the top of the Roseland Peninsula, saw the biggest increase in homes for sale in September than any other area in the UK, according to Zoopla.
The Truro area – which includes St Mawes, St Ives and Falmouth – had almost 50 per cent more properties on the market at that time than it did on average for all Septembers since 2018.
The rate of stamp duty paid by people buying a second home was also upped from an extra three per cent to five per cent in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget.
Cornwall was once a staycation hub for domestic tourists, but has endured a difficult decade in the age of cut-price sun holidays abroad
Cornish towns such as Newquay are struggling to attract tourists due to poor public transport infrastructure, according to local business owners
The glory of Roseland. St Mawes’s harbour never fails to make the spirits soar
One business struggling is Constantine Bay Stores close to Padstow, the town famous for tourism, especially because of celebrity chef Rick Stein. Homes in the area can go for up to £5million.
Constantine Bay’s owners are husband and wife team Chris and Amelia Keeble and they have warned that their future is at stake and is backing the Survive 25 campaign.
‘Footfall in Cornwall is down. This year for all has been a struggle’, the store said in a Facebook post this week.
‘We are 20 per cent down on where we would normally be, I’m hearing this from all my fellow business owners, everyone is clearly watching their spend.
‘I hate the saying “use it or lose it” but it’s very true. Sadly next year doesn’t look too bright either. Let’s do all what we can to help Cornwall through these blue times’.
Malcolm Bell, executive chairman of Visit Cornwall until October 31, said that poor weather, cost of living pressures and the general election all played a part in a disappointing year for tourism.
He said that 2024 had been ‘flat all the way through’, with no great peaks in visitors.
Mr Bell told the BBC: ‘Sometimes you have a bad spring and it’s made up by summer or summer dips a bit and you have a great autumn.
‘This year has been flat all the way through, which is very rare in my 25 plus years experience.’
He added: ‘When consumers aren’t confident they cut back on their spending and one of those things is holidays.
‘It might go on for a year or two but the long term future for tourism and the visitor economy is still strong’.
Sue Jewell from the South East Cornwall Tourism Association (SECTA) said that 2024 had been ‘absolutely abysmal’.
Ms Jewell revealed that for the first time this year her self-catering accommodation near Liskeard has not been fully booked in the school holidays.
‘I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve never had gaps for half-term. It’s not only affecting accommodation providers – if we don’t have guests, then they don’t go out for dinner, we don’t employ cleaners, the whole economy is feeling the pinch.’
Dairyland Farm Park, near Newquay, has been welcoming visitors for almost five decades, but shut its doors for the final time in early November.
Millions of children will have spent time there since it opened – and it was a school trip staple for children in Cornwall and neighbouring Devon.
Flambards closed its doors after 50 years with immediate effect, leaving fans devastated.
The theme park in Helston announced the closure on November 4, citing rising costs and a ‘steady decline in visitor numbers’.
‘Flambards has been a cherished destination for generations, and it is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell,’ a statement on the park’s Facebook page read.
Previous visitors to the park were heartbroken at the news, describing the closure as a ‘huge loss’ and ‘absolutely gutting’.
It comes months after the park announced the closure of four of its rides due to an ‘ongoing shortage of specialist parts’ – which forced owners to reduce the cost of a ticket to just £14.95 each.
Previous visitors to the park – which boasts its own Victorian town – were heartbroken at the news, describing the closure as a ‘huge loss’ and ‘absolutely gutting’
It comes months after the park announced the closure of four of its rides due to an ‘ongoing shortage of specialist parts’
The theme park first opened in 1976 and was renamed after a popular TV show in the 1990s.
It has boasted family rides, rollercoasters, a Victorian town and a life-size replica of a London street during the Blitz.
Visitors were heartbroken by the news, with one saying the closure meant there was ‘nothing for children and young people’ in the whole of Cornwall.
‘Absolutely gutted for our community and Cornwall as a whole – but it doesn’t feel like places in Devon and above are suffering like we are. So sad,’ they added.
Another said: ‘I can’t bring myself to tell my six year old son as he will be gutted. Such sad news for those who are going to lose their jobs.’
