North East bids to double tourist numbers without sparking Barcelona-style backlash from locals

While around 69 million people visited the region in 2023, enjoying major attractions like Durham Cathedral and Hadrian’s Wall, the North East lags well behind other parts of the UK and sits bottom of the league tables for both domestic and international tourist spending.

Culture chiefs want to double the size of the North East’s £6.1 billion tourism industry by 2034 and laid out plans at Newcastle Cathedral on Monday night to boost the region’s global profile without damaging its environment, heritage, and communities.

Anti-tourism protests in Barcelona have made international headlines recently, with locals taking to the streets, blocking hotel entrances, and spraying tourists with water pistols to vent their anger.

And spikes in visitor numbers to popular spots like the Northumberland seaside village of Seahouses have already led to complaints of travel chaos and people being priced out of living locally because of the surge in the holiday letting market.

At the launch of what was labelled a “globally significant” commitment to unlock the North East’s untapped tourism potential in a way that would positively impact the region’s places and people, Destination North East England chair John Marshall set out a need to avoid the “resentment” and protests caused by over-tourism.

He added: “We want to grow the benefits of tourism without losing the unique identity and environment that makes the region so special.”

The North East recorded 459,000 international visits in 2023 and a £360 million spend from those tourists, by far the lowest in the country – compared to 3.4 million visits to the North West and 1.1 million to Yorkshire and the Humber, according to Visit Britain.

Durham County Council leader Amanda Hopgood said that the North East lacks the national or international profile it should have and needs to “go to the right audiences”.

The Liberal Democrat councillor, who leads on tourism issues in the new North East Combined Authority, said: “We already attract 69 million tourists to the region a year, but we are bottom of the pile. The sector employs 63,000 people now, so you can only imagine what it can scale up to.

“It contributes £6.1 billion to the economy and we want to increase that, but we want to do that in an environmentally sustainable way and to do it with our residents instead of to them.

“We are never going to get people here coming for a sunshine holiday. As beautiful as our beaches are, you are never going to get people coming to sit in 35C sun every day here.

“It has to be around our natural assets – there is nowhere else in the country that can offer the coast, city, and rural areas that we can. We need to take the opportunity to promote that and sell it at every opportunity.”

However, Coun Hopgood warned that she did not want “areas to be overrun and residents feeling like strangers”.

A major uplift in tourism would require a significant boost to public transport capacity, hotel availability, and other infrastructure.

North East mayor Kim McGuinness admitted that such efforts, like the extension of the Tyne and Wear Metro system, have no quick fix.

Speaking days after northern mayors announced they would be uniting under the ‘Great North’ brand to promote their areas, she added: “The growth in infrastructure that will be required for a project like this is long-term. But we can’t think in one-year, two-year, five-year cycles. That is where we have failed before, that is why Levelling Up failed. The fact that it was all so short-term and didn;’t consider a long-term vision to create places that people feel like belong to them.”

The mayor has previously announced plans to put a £1-per-night tourist tax on hotel stays in the region and invest the proceeds back into the North East’s cultural sector – though she currently lacks the power to impose such a levy unilaterally.

Ms McGuinness said there remains a “really strong argument” for a tourist tax and to “watch this space”.

A “first-of-its-kind” Regenerative Visitor Economy Framework announced on Monday lays out ambitions for the North East’s tourism industry to help the region respond to climate change, restore nature, and boost local businesses.

That includes taking “prime position” to capitalise on growing demand for more sustainable holiday destinations from environmentally-friendly travellers conscious of their carbon footprint.