About

Summary 

Acorn Tourism was commissioned by Thanet District Council to conduct an in person visitor survey amongst day and overnight visitors to the Thanet towns of Broadstairs, Margate and Broadstairs, along with secondary research and social listening to inform the new Destination Management Framework. 

 

Our Approach 

Acorn Tourism adopted a three-strand research approach designed to provide a robust, up-to-date evidence base for Visit Thanet’s new five-year Destination Management Framework and future marketing activity. It combined large-scale face-to-face visitor survey, structured social listening, and targeted secondary research, enabling both behavioural insight and sentiment analysis across Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate. The work was designed to capture changes in visitor behaviour since the previous 2018 study and in the context of post-pandemic travel patterns. 

 

The primary research element consisted of a face-to-face visitor survey delivered in two seasonal waves (May/June and August), across all three towns. A total of 1,200 interviews were successfully completed, split evenly by location and balanced between day visitors and overnight visitors. Alongside the survey, a structured social listening programme was implemented, monitoring Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Tripadvisor and Google reviews over a 14-week period, to assess sentiment, trends, emerging topics and audience characteristics. Secondary research reviewed regional and national tourism performance, policies and post-pandemic trends relevant to coastal destinations in Kent, and local findings were interpreted within a wider strategic and market context. 

 

Outcome

The study provided clear conclusions and practical, prioritised recommendations to inform the Destination Management Framework, including opportunities, risks and suggested actions for destination management, marketing, messaging and visitor engagement across Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate