What are the tourism trends for Cornwall in 2025?

There is no way to sugarcoat it - 2024 was a hard year for those working in tourism. In Cornwall, we saw some much-loved visitor attractions close their doors for good and for those that remained open, reports are rife of experiencing one of their most challenging years to date.

As tourism, arts and heritage destinations look forward to 2025, minds are inevitably focused on what they can expect.

Here is a summary of some of the headlines at the recent Tourism Summit, hosted by Visit Cornwall in January 2025, about the overarching picture for tourism in the UK and some specific implications for Cornwall.


What does the international and domestic tourism picture look like right now?

  • Domestic tourism was down 12% nationally in 2024 - Patricia Yates, CEO of Visit Britain

  • We saw more budget-conscious decision making - overnight stays turning into day trips, lead time for bookings reducing further - Patricia Yates, CEO of Visit Britain

  • There is a national aim to attract 50m visitors per year to the UK by 2030, a figure currently sitting at 40m visitors per year - Madeline Cullum, Head of Visitor Economy, DCMS

  • Part of the activity to achieve this will focus on getting people to travel outside of London, as the international market tends to stay there. This focus on regional growth will be achieved through relationships with Local Visitor Economy Partnerships (LVEPs) such as Visit Cornwall - - Madeline Cullum, Head of Visitor Economy, DCMS

  • Globally, the travel market is doing very well with 2023 being up 7% in international travel numbers and 15% in revenue and 2024 being up 14% in international numbers and 20% in revenue - Simon Calder, travel journalist

  • It is the UK which is struggling with international travel, based on Brexit regulations affecting ease of entry. We do not accept identity cards, only passports and we are creating electronic tracking systems with registration charges - both of which create barriers to entry and mean our numbers still haven’t returned to 2019 levels - Simon Calder, travel journalist

  • Within the UK, despite the cost of living crisis, our appetite to go abroad remains undimmed. We are collecting experiences. It is still affordable to travel from the UK to other countries, and British people prioritise this luxury spend. This affects spending on experiences within the UK, especially with no guarantee of sunshine - Simon Calder, travel journalist

  • Within the UK, it is the cities which seem to be doing well with tourism numbers - high intensity, high volume of memorable experiences - putting further pressure on regional tourism such as Cornwall - Simon Calder, travel journalist

Reasons to be cheerful

Kate Nicholls, UK Hospitality, talked about positive steps being taken to address the challenges faced by tourism in the last year:

  • Global travel is rebounding post-COVID with the return of China and other Asian markets. The next steps will be convincing these markets to leave larger cities and explore other areas of the UK.

  • Shorter breaks are becoming increasingly popular, and it is recommended that tourism destinations focus on short break itineraries to show their audiences how it is possible to fit a great Cornish experience into a weekend

  • Incomes are now rising faster than prices and have done for the last year - wages are going up in real terms but the public doesn’t yet believe it. They aren’t giving themselves permission to spend and aren’t confident to do so - it needs a nod from the government that recovery is happening for them to believe it.

  • Government strategies are being put into place to support growth - investment, infrastructure, trade and high street strategies are currently being worked on, and tourism and hospitality is the golden thread that runs through these

  • There is an appetite for government, industry and supporting bodies - such as UK Hospitality and Visit Cornwall - to work in a collaborative way to develop strategy whilst recognising fiscal constraints

  • There are measures being taken to drive demand and these will be driven by data and evidence, and there is work being undertaken to address the labour shortages experienced in tourism which currently stands at a shortfall of 90,00 vacancies nationally.

Some new initiatives in Cornwall

Lord Hutton, Chair of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Economic Forum, talked about the headlines for Cornwall and how their advisory group is pushing for positive change which will benefit tourism in Cornwall.

Tourism provides 15% of Cornwall’s economy. We have 50,000 jobs within tourism, meaning 1 in 5 jobs within the county are in tourism and hospitality.

Key projects being led by the CIOS Economic Forum are:

  • Creation of an event strategy to create a year-round Cornwall offer, something which will be key in attracting larger numbers of visitors to the county in the off-peak seasons

  • Addressing the labour shortage - Emma Hunt of Falmouth University is looking at skills shortages and a pipeline of activity which will address this

  • Cornwall Council is working with the Department of Work and Pensions to mobilise those who have been economically inactive for a while, as part of a pilot programme to address labour shortages

  • Supporting a long-term sustainable future for Newquay Airport, as it is crucial this facility remains an option for travel into Cornwall

For advice and guidance on how to harness some of this information and feed it into your longer-term marketing strategy, please feel free to get in touch to discuss your organisation’s marketing and communications needs.

I’ve also written an article about techniques you can consider to elevate your marketing in 2025, which may be of interest.


Lauren Webb