A key attraction

Even the number of day trippers has fallen by fifty per cent over the same time.

The town's lost nearly half its hotels over the last ten to fifteen years and Blackpool's economy languishes near the bottom of the national pile.

But the Blackpool Challenge Partnership - an alliance of public sector and private business interests - is trying to revive the town's fortunes.

So far it's only been able to tinker at the edges - improving street lighting and sea defences.

But they say more is needed - the so-called 'wow' factor to pull in visitors. They want to see a string of resort casinos being built along the seafront - turning Blackpool into the Las Vegas of North West England.

Gambling attraction

Before that can happen, however, there needs to be a relaxation of the gaming laws.

looking for the sun

"Without resort casinos I think all we can do is hope to halt the decline not turn Blackpool around which is what we really want to do," says Alan Cavill the partnership's manager.

Blackpool's not alone. All over England there are seventy two seaside resorts many of which are struggling to survive.

Last year the Tourism minister Janet Anderson launched an initiative to try to revive seaside towns.

One element of that was to commission a report from the English Tourism Council to come up with recommendations.

That report will be launched on Tuesday.

Government help

Key among its twenty recommendations is that the Government needs to introduce a concerted policy to assist seaside towns.

If nothing's done then the ETC warns the seaside resorts could suffer the same fate as some inner cities.

According to ETC chief executive Mary Lynch: "They're affected by the same things that affect cities so if business disappears as it has done then jobs are lost and you have decay and what we're saying here is that we have to look afresh at seaside resorts and say how can government policy better help them in the same way we might help factories and cities that close down."

But the ETC also wants the resorts to help themselves.

It says the seaside towns need to identify what type of destination they are - ranging from picturesque or traditional through to family-oriented, lively or fun - and then focus on attracting the kind of visitors looking for that experience.

In other words they need to concentrate on a specific niche - not target the mass tourism of the past.

Decay

The seaside resorts have a hard task ahead of them - With the threat of further decay staring them in the face staying the same is not an option.

And whatever they manage to achieve they're unlikely to ever return to the days when people took their main holiday in an English seaside town.

The Ogden family from Manchester is a perfect example - for all of them it's back to Cyprus again next year.