According to a recent survey, the Dover district attracts 4.5 million people to the area annually, adding around £285 million to the local economy each year and supporting 5633 jobs. A thriving tourism sector that continues to expand.
The Dover district has the third highest proportion of tourism enterprises in Kent and is among the top 20 per cent of English local authority areas for tourism related businesses with the number rising by a fifth in the five years since 2019.
The Port of Dover is the UK’s busiest international ferry port with over 10 million passengers choosing Dover as their route to the UK or Europe. Over 30 ferries a day leave the port with operators P&O Ferries, Irish Ferries and DFDS running services 24 hours a day, 364 days a year. The port also welcomes over 200,000 international visitors each year from the UK’s second busiest cruise terminus.
The survey data from a study commissioned by Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) Visit Kent suggests more people are staying for longer to explore the town and the wider district, rather than passing through, with 386,500 visitors staying at least one night, of which 296,000 hail from the UK with 90,500 from overseas. Day trips account for 4.1 million visits.
Experiential tourism – from stone carving to wild foraging, golf days to wine tours – is adding to the area’s growing appeal as a destination, as are new visitor attractions, such as the restored magnificent Maison Dieu in Dover and Whitemills Wake & Aqua Park near Sandwich. Find out more about visiting this beautiful area on our White Cliffs Country website.
With Deal’s burgeoning food and drink scene, an emerging cultural landscape and more exciting development projects in the pipeline, including the Marina Curve in Dover and a new spa hotel and surf lagoon at Betteshanger Country Park, this is the time to invest in Dover.
