A generally wet Easter Monday put a dampener on the UK coastal arcades’ Easter weekend.
Reports coming in suggest that the first week of the school holidays was reasonably good, given dry weather, but that deteriorated as the weekend progressed.
Footfall was apparently quite good, despite the usual overcrowded roads, but disposable income was clearly down. Even so, most operators reported that cashboxes at least compared with last year.
Nigel Brown, communications manager at Clacton Pier (pictured), said that the weekend was "steady" with footfall to an expected level.
“The visitors turned up in numbers but there was less dwell time and less secondary spend - which is understandable given the financial climate and what other pressures people are facing moneywise,” he added.
“The weather was kinder than many other areas of the country and we escaped the rain so we cannot complain. Saturday and Sunday were the busiest days, but it was certainly no record breaker.
“We kicked off with the first of our 11 free fireworks displays on Sunday night and that certainly pulled in the crowds.”
North of the border, where the school holidays did not coincide precisely with those of England and Wales, the story was not dissimilar.
Joseph Cullis at his Saltburn FEC told us: “The weather during the first week of the holidays was good, which brought people out and we had a good week in our FEC. Last week wasn’t as busy but this was probably due to the deterioration in the weather.
“The holiday weekend has been slightly disappointing with heavy rain on Easter Monday. Overall business has been rather mixed but I would say we have been slightly busier than the holiday period last year.”
