Travelodge welcomes Government commitment to UK seaside

Budget hotel chain Travelodge has welcomed the Government's announcement it is to invest £10m in regenerating three British seaside towns.

Earlier this month Travelodge teamed up with National Express and Blackpool Pleasure Beach to launch the Save Our Seaside campaign, which aims to boost domestic tourism.

Grant Hearn, chief executive of Travelodge, said: "It is great to see that the Government has listened to our calls to take tourism seriously and finally announced more support for the industry and more specifically our costal towns."

Travelodge has earmarked £150m to invest in 55 new seaside hotels over the forthcoming years.

As part of the first wave of grants from the Government's Sea Change programme Blackpool, Dover and Torbay have received grants to improve facilities and boost tourism.

Ultimately over the three years of the programme the Government says £45m will be made available to regeneration projects in UK seaside resorts.

The announcement comes as national tourism body VisitBritain begins the process of making staff redundant after its budget was slashed by the Government by 18% last year.

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By Chris Druce

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