海角大神

Clutching her plastic spade, Willow skips along the beach, followed by her grandmother, Gay Brice. As Ms. Brice holds out a bucket, Willow digs deep into the sand, a smile on her face. It鈥檚 the electric smile of a 2-year-old playing on the beach on a sun-dazzled day.

Ms. Brice, a local hairdresser, hasn鈥檛 forgotten that feeling. 鈥淚 love the openness, this scenery,鈥� she says, gazing at a shoreline bisected by a pier poking into the blue-green sea. Then she turns back to watching her granddaughter whom she鈥檚 minding for the day.

This pebbly beach on England鈥檚 southern coast isn鈥檛 exactly teeming on a midweek afternoon. Schools aren鈥檛 out for summer yet. But when the school term does end later this month, many families will head not to English seaside towns, but to resorts across southern Europe in search of sun, sea, and sand.

Though they enjoyed a brief renaissance during the pandemic when travel abroad was limited and viewed as risky, towns like Worthing are not seeing the crowds they used to. And so,聽in order to thrive, they are聽thinking harder about how to offer more than sandcastles. That may depend at least in part on another pandemic side effect: Remote office work and hybrid working hours make an hour-plus train commute to London, like that from Worthing, less burdensome.

鈥淩ather than still trying to go down the route of being a beach-based holiday,鈥� says Anya Chapman, a professor of tourism management at Bournemouth University, 鈥渢he resorts are having to adapt.鈥�

鈥淧eople just had to get out of the city鈥�

Britain more or less invented the beach holiday, starting in the late 18th century when sea bathing was touted by royalty as a cure-all. In time, trains would bring workers from industrial cities in search of sea breezes to dozens of purpose-built resort towns, such as Scarborough in the northeast. When its 365-room Grand Hotel opened in 1867, it was the largest hotel in Europe. Towns competed to build the longest piers and widest promenades. Funfairs, theaters, and game arcades jostled for attention.

But the availability of cheap package tours聽starting in the 1970s hollowed out domestic seaside resorts, which proved unable to compete with foreign destinations for sunshine. Hotel stays and visitor spending slumped. Blackpool, a resort in the northwest that once attracted 17 million visitors a year from cities like Liverpool and Manchester, saw arrivals slump to 11 million by 1999.聽Blackpool and other similar towns became bywords for deprivation and despair. In 2016, coastal communities were among the biggest backers of Brexit and a break with Europe.

Then came a pandemic that shut down international borders and forced people to stay home. Between lockdowns and with foreign travel largely unavailable, Britons flocked to domestic destinations during public holidays, including seaside towns they had overlooked before. 鈥淐OVID was a catalyst,鈥� says Kenny Dutt, a chef and restaurant owner. 鈥淧eople just had to get out of the city.鈥�

The 鈥渟taycation鈥� summer of 2021 was the high-water mark for media hype in the United Kingdom about the rebirth of domestic holidays for a generation reared on foreign travel. But even then,聽the numbers didn鈥檛 add up, says Professor Chapman. Domestic tourist聽spending actually declined聽overall during the pandemic, since聽some people were unwilling or unable to travel, and those who did often avoided hotels and restaurants for fear of exposure to COVID-19.聽

Now that the world has opened up, British travelers are back on the beaches of Italy and Spain, and English seaside resorts are mostly back where they started before the pandemic.

Except, that is, for the arrival of newcomers. Worthing has seen an influx of homeowners from London 鈥撀爇nown as DFLs, short for people who are 鈥渄own from London鈥澛犫�� drawn by affordable property and outdoor lifestyles. Recruitment website Indeed ranked Worthing in 2022 as the U.K.鈥檚 top 鈥淶oom town鈥� based on growth in job listings with remote or hybrid options.

This demographic shift in a town that in 2016 had one of the country鈥檚 oldest populations 鈥撀燛ngland鈥檚 coastal resorts have long been popular with retirees 鈥撀爃as had a political resonance: The town council is now run by the Labour Party after nearly two decades of Conservative Party control.

Rosie Sanders, a teacher, moved down from London before the pandemic. She loves to walk on the beach, even in winter, and says the town is becoming more vibrant as more young families arrive, mostly DFLs like her. 鈥淚 think with the cost of living at the moment, when the weather鈥檚 good, this place does well,鈥� she says.

Fewer tourists, more commuters

For tourists, Worthing offers a mix of cultural walking tours, side trips to the South Downs national park, and arts and crafts. Most visitors are day-trippers or weekend holiday-makers. Many still come to walk the coastal promenade, dip in the sea, eat ice cream, and soak up the kitsch of an English seaside town: rock candy, joke postcards, silly hats.

鈥淚t鈥檚 got a lot to shout about,鈥� says Mr. Dutt, who opened his first restaurant here after winning Britain鈥檚 鈥淢asterchef鈥� in 2018 and is a booster of his adopted hometown. 鈥淪easide towns have been massively undervalued [and] forgotten about.鈥�

Behind the pastel beachfront blocks are pockets of deep poverty, which Worthing has in common with resorts dotted up and down England鈥檚 coastline. Seaside towns tend to have lower employment rates, slower economic growth, and populations in worse health with lower life expectancy than the national average, according to government data. Worthing, a town of 110,000, isn鈥檛 at the bottom of the list, but it shares some of the same issues.

Matthew Potter runs a food bank that opens three days a week, serving around 150 families. It began as a mutual aid group at the start of the pandemic. 鈥淚t was meant to be short term, just to get through the first few months,鈥� he says. Now he wants to find premises so that more donated food can be stored and distributed to those who need it.

He says that 40% of recipients are working full time yet are struggling to keep up with the cost of living. 鈥淛ust the sheer thing of not being able to feed your children is traumatic,鈥� he says.聽That house prices are rising as DFLs discover Worthing is adding to the squeeze, as renters on low incomes fear being priced out, says Mr. Potter. 鈥淭he problem here is low wages.鈥�

At the end of the pier is Perch, an elegant restaurant that opened in April 2022 after a $2 million refurbishment of a former disco. From its curved windows, the sea glistens along a coastline of headlands and bays. A row of wind turbines turns on the horizon.

Owner Alex Coombes is among the newcomers to Worthing, though he moved from Hove, another coastal town. When he opened Perch last year after pandemic delays and cost overruns, he had expected to close over winter and take a skiing vacation. But demand was so strong that he stayed open most days. 鈥淲e were full every weekend,鈥� he says.

Like most seafront businesses, he still depends on visitors coming to spend money, in addition to those who live nearby, and he knows that Worthing isn鈥檛 Mallorca. 鈥淭his is a good weekend trip. A holiday is when you go to an airport 鈥撀爐hat鈥檚 our perception of a holiday,鈥� he says.

Economic head winds

Professor Chapman says now that vacationers can jet off to warmer climes, English resorts need to repackage their Victorian heritage. 鈥淭he thing the U.K. resorts have, and is often neglected and overlooked, is the heritage,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his was the first place in the world for mass tourism.鈥�

Still, it takes investment to revive towns, and that is in short supply in the U.K., which is struggling with high inflation and lackluster growth. A dedicated fund for coastal revival launched in 2015 has been replaced by a national leveling-up program for all deprived areas. For every Worthing that has pockets of gentrification, there are others with nothing much to dangle for tourists.

And in Worthing, the economic head winds are blowing. Mr. Dutt closed his second restaurant in April, which he had opened in an up-and-coming neighborhood. Mr. Coombes says he鈥檚 bracing for September when his customers start feeling the pinch from higher U.K. mortgage rates.

At the seaside, seasons matter. 鈥淲hen the sun stops shining,鈥� he warns, 鈥渨e鈥檒l see the slowdown.鈥�