Come to Cornwall … but please try some lesser-known beaches
CORNWALL’S tourism chiefs have stopped promoting some of the region’s beaches amid fears they are becoming too busy.
Malcolm Bell, the head of Visit Cornwall, claimed “over-tourism” threatened to damage the environment and spoil quality of life for residents.
He made the remarks in an interview with BBC Cornwall in which he admitted several beaches in the county were no longer being publicised in brochures and online campaigns in a bid to drive down visitor numbers.
One of those is Kynance Cove, close to the Lizard, Britain’s most southerly point, owned by the National Trust, which has been named a “hidden gem” and voted one of Europe’s most beautiful beaches. Porthcurno beach is no longer advertised, too.
Instead, Visit Cornwall’s promotional campaigns will try to steer tourists towards places such as Looe and Coverack, where they will be more “welcome”. Mr Bell said: “Over-tourism is basically too many tourists, when it impacts on the local population, impacts on the quality and the experience. It can damage the environment but also obviously irritates and gets in the way of local people.
“And there is a level at which visitors can be tolerated, not only by themselves but more importantly by local communities.
“One of my requests to the people of Cornwall, particularly in areas where visitors are welcome – Coverack, in beautiful south-east Cornwall, there’s lots of other wonderful areas – is send us in pictures of those wonderful places if you’d like to see more visitors.
“We can pump those out through social media so we can help distribute visitors better, sending them to the places where they are welcome and reducing the pressure where it’s actually too much.”
Cornwall Tourist Board, a partnership between the tourism industry, local councils and the Government was launched in 1975 and was rebranded as Visit Cornwall in 2005.