I grew up in a traditional English seaside town that can trace its history back to 1871. The town was founded by entrepreneur and businessman Peter Bruff. The Pier was one of the first buildings in the town and it allowed tourist to be brought in by steam ship from London.

The town thrived on the money brought in by tourists and saw its heyday between 1950 and 1970 when the town hosted not one but two Butlins holiday camps.

I moved to the town in 1979 when I was 3 and although I was too young to realise it at the time the town was well into its decline. In fact, the writing was on the wall for many seaside towns since package holiday first started around 1950, over the years these grew steadily in popularity. Butlins in my hometown is now a long distant memory being replaced by houses in the late 80’s.

So what was the response to this decline by the town and its leaders, well frankly not a lot, in fact from my point of view complete apathy. Whilst the decline of the town was in part due to wider economic trend and many of the factors were beyond their control I still believe something could of been done.

There are examples of seaside towns stopping this downward trend but not in my old town. Over the years it became a mecca for retirement and whilst this demographic is growing it does nothing for the vibrancy of an area. The town lost its focus and ultimately its tourists and then the money.

This is evident in the town’s unemployment figures that now stand at 50% of the adult population.

So where is the lesson in all of this?

    1. Plan for the future and take nothing for granted. Whilst it’s important to make hay while the sun shines it’s also important to plan for the future and not to take anything for granted. Planning for any eventuality is vital.

 

    1. Take a step back once in a while. Why didn’t the town and its council take steps to mitigate the decline? The reasons are many and varied but one is because they were just too close to see the issues. In business you, as the owner, often need to take a step back to see what is really going on and what you need to do about it.

 

  1. Always review what you are doing. The town lost its entrepreneurial spirit, the founder knew how to take advantage of trends but towns are run by councils not business leaders and so decisions are made differently. It goes without saying that businesses need some entrepreneurial spirit to take advantage of emerging trends and to keep things fresh.

Incidentally if you are wondering which towns are bucking the trend of decline in seaside towns then take a look at Bournemouth which is enjoying a resurgence of business especially in the form of tech companies. Bournemouth has one of the fastest-growing digital economy of anywhere in the UK, with digital start-up incorporations rising by 212 per cent between 2010 and 2013.

Bournemouth is also one of only two places in the UK where the population is getting younger.

This proves it is possible to take a fresh view and make positive change unfortunately for the town I grew up in this does not seem to be in the plan.