Economic benefits of the South Downs National Park

Last week saw the publication of the South Downs Visitor Survey.  This outlines the impact and benefits of visitors to the South Downs National Park.  The headline story is that there were about 46.3 million day visits, the vast majority of which were made by local people.  Visitors spent some £464 million in the local economy in 2011/12, supporting 8,200 jobs.  Nationally (in England & Wales), this places the South Downs third in terms of overall spend in National Parks: the Lake District was first with £952 million a year and the Pembrokeshire Coast second with £498 million a year.

To read a longer review of this survey see "Have we seen the benefit" on the South Downs Network web site.