Cornwall saw a lot of visitors this summer, and we saw lots of great people at our luxury Cornish cottages too. The BBC show Poldark is being credited as just one of the many reasons people have been flocking down to the beautiful county of Cornwall.
Staycations have been on the rise in 2016 due to rising holiday prices abroad and Brexit, but one of the main reasons why Cornish businesses have said that custom is up by nearly 40% is the drama Poldark. The stunning scenery seen on the show, in addition to people wanting to catch glimpses of leading actor Aidan Turner while he is filming, has got people rushing down to the South West.
Keven Ayres, the owner of the Cornish Store in Falmouth, said: “Poldark is brilliant for us. Anything that focuses attention on Cornwall and brings more people here has to be a good thing.”
A recent tourism survey found that half of the visitors who holidayed in Cornwall, and took the survey, had watched the BBC series, and a fifth had said the show had prompted their visit. Now series two has started, there is hope that the tourism boost will continue into the mild autumn months Cornwall is looking to get.
Visitors have been hiking along the cliffs at St Agnes, used in the filming, and heading to Gunwalloe beach where a shipwreck scene was filmed last month. The National Trust’s Levant mine, which has doubled for the copper mine in the show has also seen a 50% increase in visitors within the past year.
Cornwall tourism is really capitalising on the Poldark effect and there are lots of Poldark themed things to do close to our luxury Cornish cottages, from dog walks to kayak expeditions.
Stars of the show have also expressed their love for Cornwall. Eleanor Tomlinson said: “I love Cornwall; it’s so glorious and so much the heart of this show. Sometimes you forget the part it plays until you get there and suddenly everything makes sense.”
The Poldark effect does not look like it will be ending anytime soon either, with the cast and crew coming back to Cornwall later this month for filming the third series.
Photo by: Katie Butler/ Instagram
THE VALLEY is proud to be the only 5 Star Gold Self Catering holiday village of its size in the whole of Cornwall
