Lockdown is starting to ease and businesses are starting to reopen. All through lockdown people spoke of the ‘new normal’ and how we had the potential to do things differently when we got out the other side. One thing that did see a big increase (or so it seems at least) was people, families all getting out and going for walks together, enjoying that allotted time each day in the outdoors.
Who knew after years and millions spent on marketing campaigns to get people out an exercising, all they needed to do was tell people NOT to go out to improve the nations fitness levels.
Sheffield is incredibly lucky to have the Peak District on our doorstep, so to celebrate the launch of our Dog Friendly Peak District section, we thought we’d do some digging into the stats to find out if more people were getting out to discover the Peaks, and if they were – where were they going?
According to Google data searches for ‘Peak District’ related terms were up 80% in May/June 2020 compared to May/June the year before, and searches for Peak District Walks were up 75%, in fact of all 15 National Parks, it was the Peak District that showed the biggest growth of them all in terms of interest.
With ‘holiday’ based National Parks such as Snowdonia and the Lake District seeing a decrease in interest year on year, it’s the accessibility of the Peak District that helped it grow. The Peak District reaches into five different counties and it is estimated that 20 million people live within one hour’s journey of the National Park. (Source: peakdistrict.gov.uk)
With such a surge in interest, it’s easy to assume that many of these people were not Peak District regulars and that people were getting out and discovering the UK’s first National Park.
So where were these people going? We checked the Google search data for over 30 Peak District beauty spots.
There were huge surges in searches for these locations year on year, in fact, that was the same for most Peak District spots. The thing they all had in common was that there was a good walk when you got there.
Usually around this time of year the picturesque towns and villages of the Peak District are packed with tourists whether visiting for the day, looking for an overnight stay, looking for a short break away or even just a Sunday lunch. Lockdown meant that country pubs, hotels, B&Bs and cottages were all out of bounds.
Google Searches for Peak District pubs were down 65% year on year, Peak District hotels were down 59% and Peak District places to stay were down 51% and without tourism spots, the interest in the towns and villages had wained as well as shown below:
Getting back to ‘normal’
With lockdown easing and the announcement that overnight stays are OK again, it looks like the Peak District is already looking like a popular staycation choice, or certainly somewhere people are considering for a break away from being stuck at home.
Google trends data shows how much interest sank during lockdown, but has started to spike again in July with ‘Peak District Camping’ and ‘Peak District Cottages’ trending higher than at any point over the past 12 months. One thing is for certain if more people are looking to holiday at home this summer, then a walking and exploring holiday in the Peak District is sure to be a popular choice.