One of the UK’s leading caravan and motorhome dealerships has underlined the huge contribution that the tourism industry makes to the Shropshire economy.
To celebrate English Tourism Week from March 18 to 27, Shrewsbury-based Salop Leisure has highlighted just how important tourism is to the town and county.
The company attracts around half a million visitors every year to its headquarters at Emstrey where, it has Love Coffee restaurant and Love Plants specialist plants centre in addition to its award-winning caravan and motorhome dealership.
Alongside the dealership is the company’s Love2Stay resort, with a glamping village with 35 lodges, touring caravan park with 124 pitches and an adventure centre. The popular, award-winning resort generates £2.85 million annually for the local economy.
“Tourism makes a massive economic contribution to Shrewsbury and Shropshire in terms of the money spent in the town and county by visitors and the number of people employed in the industry and associated supply chain businesses,” said Ed Glover, Salop Leisure’s marketing manager.
“We and other tourism businesses in Shropshire are gearing up for another busy year as we expect last year’s staycationing boom to continue strongly which is great news for the county.”
The theme of this year’s English Tourism Week is "You're Welcome", which is designed to send a message that everyone involved in tourism is working hard to welcome visitors back after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The campaign focuses on staffing and recruitment, highlighting the wealth of job opportunities currently available in tourism and hospitality.
During the week, tourism businesses are encouraged to engage with politicians at all levels to raise awareness of the sector’s contribution to the local, regional and national economies.
The week aims to raise awareness of the quality, value and vast contribution that the sector makes to the UK economy. Making up 80% of the UK's tourism sector, English tourism pre-pandemic was worth £106 billion and supported 2.6 million employees.
