Why every seaside town should be like Blackpool

The much-maligned seaside town remains the UK’s number one holiday destination – how does it get it so right?

Every year the statistic comes around like a ferris wheel, or perhaps more like the train on the Big One roller coaster – predictable, but breathtaking and mind blowing. 
The simple fact is: Blackpool is the most popular holiday destination in the UK.
Last year saw visitor numbers pass the 20 million mark, even higher than 2019 – the last “normal” pre-Covid year. This year is forecast to be as successful after a busy summer.
One response could be: “No big deal.” After all, it always was. But, surely, fashions have changed, along with social classes, and gastronomy, and hasn’t everyone tried abroad, or Cornwall, or at least Morecambe?
But the Lancashire favourite is still attracting 90 coach tours a day, despite the summer season being well and truly over. A new report by accounting firm KPMG says they bring in 4,500 tourists per day, adding £200,000 to the local economy daily. Earlier this month the resort town hosted two special events geared specially to coach tourism: Lightpool, featuring light installations, performances and family activities; and the Blackpool Sequence Dance Festival at the Winter Gardens.
Besides these there are the long-established big draws. The best known is Blackpool Illuminations, running from August to January. Introduced in 1879, the “Lights” remind us how savvy Blackpool’s business bods were back in the day, ignoring the winter weather and proposing year-round tourism in the rarely balmy North West of England. 
The Pleasure Beach, opened in 1896, is also an enduring crowd-puller. It has 10 roller coasters, five “dark rides” (indoor rather than spooky, though there is a Ghost Train), five water rides, and 19 child-friendly rides. It’s been dubbed “the UK’s most ride intensive amusement park”, but it also hosts ice dancing extravaganzas, magic shows and other non-adrenalin-based experiences. 
Its smart hotel, the Boulevard (doubles from £90), won the Best Luxury Hotel in Northern Europe award for the second year running at the recent 2024 World Luxury Hotel Awards.
Blackpool Tower, two years older than the theme park, is still a magnificent, sky-seeking pier that’s far less phallic than any of London’s new office blocks; after all, it is there just to look fabulous, like all the people enjoying a night out. The Tower Ballroom, long recognised as a top-tier national arena for couples who love to take the floor, has been further thrust into the collective consciousness by regular appearances on Strictly Come Dancing. Even when the show has been tacky or – as of late – turbulent, Frank Matcham’s sublime dance hall oozes class.
Blackpool’s annual air show attracts around 300,000 visitors over a single weekend. Rebellion, the famous punk jamboree, brings in 8,000 spiky-haired oldies and youngies to see bands like the Stranglers and UK Subs. The Winter Gardens venue changes its make-up faster than a Blackpool drag artist, managing to squeeze, along with the punks, a Magic of Motown event, Abba Thank You For The Music tribute show, Le Classique De Danse Awards, the North of Britain Titles dance competition, a staging of the musical Grease and the British Country Music Festival, into the month of August.
Blackpool has a year-round cultural programme, ranging – this season – from traditional panto and the Fairytale of New York Irish-inspired Christmas concert at the Grand Theatre to the Four Seasons-inspired Jersey Beats – Oh What a Nite! at Viva Blackpool to the Waterboys at the Winter Gardens Opera House in spring. 
Blackpool’s nightlife is famous, sometimes notorious. The pubs are packed. The clubs are heaving. Comedy shows are raucous. The cuisine is excellent too and it’s not all about fish and chips. The food and vibe are equally superb at Wok Inn (Pan-Asian fusion), Twisted (Indian street food) and Common (bar and tapas).
All of which goes to illustrate how this much-maligned seaside town got it so right compared to other coastal resorts in the UK. 
“We love coming,” says Sharon Critchley, 53, from Warrington, who is in Blackpool to celebrate a niece’s hen party. “I come with my fella at least once every winter, and we always come to Blackpool for hens and divorce parties.”
Neil Shannon, 67, from Blackburn, has been visiting since the 1970s. “It’s tradition isn’t it? You can’t beat Blackpool for atmosphere.”
Blackpool draws international tourists, too. “I come whenever I can for the punk festival,” says Mariano Miramontes, 51. “You meet real people here. London is boring.”
In March, Showtown, a museum of fun and entertainment, opened near Blackpool Tower, adding a dazzling cultural space to the town’s offering. It contains six galleries, each exploring a facet of Blackpool: seaside, illuminations, magic, circus, shows and dance. The displays are interactive and full of rich historical detail. Vintage puppets, posters, stage props, programmes and clown costumes are presented alongside collages that relate the town’s history. It’s a nostalgia fix – Sooty and Sweep, whoopie cushions, Orville the Duck, Tommy Cooper’s Fez – but it’s also an education. Showtown hosts temporary exhibitions as well; currently, a room is given over to the work of photographer Andy Hollingworth, who has captured the likes of Rowan Atkinson and Victoria Wood. 
All ages, genders, classes and ethnicities are catered for in Blackpool. Where once came mill and factory workers on Wakes Weeks, you now meet Glaswegians on “lads’ weekends”, Accrington Asians dipping a toe in the cool Irish Sea, Yorkshire pensioners on group holidays and young families showing their kids where they went in the 1990s and where grandma and grandad went in the early 1950s.
So much of British tourism is stratified and wealth-based. Parts of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire have become Londons-by-the-Sea because of their high prices, haute eateries and second homes. Brighton and Margate are magnets for try-hard poseurs and lost foreign tourists. The Cotswolds is pretty but as culturally stale as a sealed biscuit tin. Blackpool is remarkable for its capacity to evolve and adapt, while keeping an anchor in its deep past and in the power of family and shared fun.
Personally, I like Blackpool for its flaneuring. The stroll along the magnificent prom – three miles from the South Shore to the Grand Hotel – takes in three piers and more than a century of architecture including Victorian, art deco and post-war functional. 
Head a block inland and, sure, the picture gets complicated. The heritage landmarks are broken up by sketchy guesthouses and, to put it kindly, works in progress. But even here the new-look Abingdon Street Market, which has food stalls and independent retail, is an encouraging new arrival.
Blackpool routinely gets bad press. The town is not preserved in aspic and its tolerance of incomers has led to social issues and economic deprivation. On a wet and windy Tuesday, it can seem like a joke holiday destination – and one that’s quite hard to get. But on the right day, or night, and with the right attitude – meaning being friendly to strangers, game for a laugh, ready to party – it still delivers. Just ask all those thousands of coach passengers.
This year the illuminations were switched on by Spice Girl Mel B on August 30, and will light up the night sky till January 5 2025. Joining a six-mile traffic jam might not sound like a top evening out – but it is! 
The Grundy Art Gallery is a community-focused space that showcases works created by artists living and working in Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre. 
There are frequent departures along the front between Starr Gate and Fleetwood Ferry. Book an Illuminations tour for £10/£12 (adults), £5/£6 (3-15 years old). 
Take your pick between the Skyscreamer reverse bungee on South Pier, the Icon and Big One roller coasters at Pleasure Beach, or the white-knuckle slides at Sandcastle Waterpark. Entry £24.95 (adults), £20.95 (children 8 – 11 years), £15.95 (Children 3 – 7 years), Free (under 3s).
Enjoy cockles or oysters from Roberts (01253 621266) for starters, fish and chips from Papa’s for mains and ice cream from Notarianni or a stick of rock for dessert.