Isle of Wight Tourism

The Isle of Wight is an Island off the southern English coast, just south of Hampshire, between the English Channel and Solent. Isle of Wight Holidays have been popular since Victorian times, as the Island is known for its natural beauty and home to the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes.

The Isle of Wight has a rich history that includes a lot of maritime history with boat building and sail making, space history with launches of Black arrow and Black Knight space rockets. Events such as the Bestival are held on the Islands, and the world famous Isle of Wight festival has been recently revived. As well as all this, the Isle of Wight is one of the best locations to find dinosaur fossils in Europe.

The heritage and history of the Island is a major asset which has kept the economy of the island going for many years. Isle of Wight Holidays tend to focus on the natural heritage of the Island, including both wildlife and geology which is an alternative to the typical traditional seaside resort holiday. Due to the increased affordability of air travel to far away destinations, seaside resort holidays in the UK have been on a steady decline.

Tourism is the largest industry on the Island, in 1999 the 130,000 residents were hosts to the 2.7 million visitors. Out of these, 1.5 million stayed overnight in Isle of Wight hotels and other Isle of Wight accommodation, and the other 1.2 million were day visits. To show how many British people visited the Island, only 150,000 of the visitors were international. Between 1993 and 2000, visits have increased by 3% each year on average.

At the turn of the nineteenth century the Island had ten pleasure piers including two at Ryde and a "chain pier" at Seaview. The Victoria Pier in Cowes succeeded the earlier Royal Pier but was itself removed in 1960. The piers at Ryde, Seaview, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor originally served a coastal steamer service that operated from Southsea on the mainland. The piers at Seaview, Shanklin, Ventnor and Alum Bay were all destroyed by storms during the last century. Today only the railway pier at Ryde and the piers at Sandown, Totland Bay and Yarmouth survive. They also have Blackgang Chine, which is believed to be the oldest theme park in the UK, if not the world.

As well as more traditional tourist attractions, the Island is often host to walking holidays or cycling holidays through the attractive scenery. Almost every town and village on the Island plays host to IOW hotels, hostels and camping sites. Out of the peak summer season, the Island is still an important destination for coach tours from other parts of the United Kingdom and an annual walking festival has attracted considerable interest.

About the Author

Ashley Gilmour has wrote this article on behalf of Garden Isle Holidays Isle of Wight hotels