Eleanor Harris: An Eye On British Airways i360

cutting edge design and engineering take brightons visitor appeal to new heights

We have much to be optimistic about. Figures published last week show that Brighton and Hove had record numbers of tourists in 2014 with 10 million day trippers and 1 million overnight stays.
Tourism contributed £1.1 billion to our economy and employed nearly 22,000 people. It is the cornerstone and lifeblood of our economy, vital for the many hotels, shops and restaurants that rely on the tourist trade and simply would not exist without those visitors.
Brighton now is the most visited destination in the South East outside London (overtaking Oxford), the most visited seaside destination in the UK (overtaking Blackpool) and the only UK seaside destination in the top ten destinations for international visitors. Brighton Pier is the only top ten UK visitor attraction outside London with 4 million visitors.
Since Dr Richard Russell declared the healing benefits of seawater in 1750, Brighton has been a town founded on tourism, cemented by the arrival of the Prince Regent in 1783 who built the flamboyant Royal Pavilion as his seaside pleasure palace.
The Victorians took tourism to the masses and built the railway, the grand seafront hotels, the Palace Pier, West Pier and the Chain Pier, the Theatre Royal and Volks Railway.

The piers and Volks were all examples of cutting edge engineering and bold architecture of their time. When the West Pier opened it divided opinion amongst local residents, but later became recognised as the finest pier ever built with Grade I listed status.
Whilst most seaside towns went into terminal decline after the advent of the package holiday in the 1970s and more recently the low cost airlines, Brighton has not rested on its laurels, but has continued to reinvent itself.
We have bucked the trend of the declining seaside town by continuing to develop new offers to keep the tourists coming: we added the Brighton Centre, Churchill Square and the Marina in my lifetime. We also created an exciting calendar of events such as the Festival, Fringe and Pride, which all draw in the crowds by the thousands.
The i360 very much follows in this history: like our Victorian forefathers, we are using cutting edge design and engineering to give the tourists an exciting new reason to keep visiting. We are proudly building the heritage of the future.
www.brightoni360.co.uk
Twitter: @TheBrightoni360 @Eleanor_Harris
Facebook: Brighton-i360, Pinterest: Brightoni360