BOLTON’S tourism industry is booming — with the council exceeding its expectations on the number of people coming to visit the borough.

The authority created a Visitor Economy Strategy to run from 2012 until 2015 in which it laid out a host of targets regarding how many people it wanted to attract to the town.

Those targets included increasing footfall at the showpiece Food and Drink Festival, holding internationally recognised events and convincing visitors to stay over at accommodation in the town.

As the council prepares to launch its next three-year strategy, it said it has exceeded its targets on all these areas.

In 2012, bosses said they wanted to increase the footfall at the annual Food and Drink festival to 140,000 by this year — a 50 per cent rise.

According to its figures, this was achieved a year ahead of schedule in 2014 when 153,000 visited the foody spectacular.

Another target was to hold at least five “internationally recognised events” during the three-year period.

The council said it had done this comfortably with events including the 2012 Olympic Torch Relay, The British Transplant Games in 2014, the Rugby League World Cup in 2013, the National Badminton Championships in 2012 and regular high profile events like IronmanUK and the Skyride, which again took place this year.

Latest figures, produced by Visit Manchester, estimate that tourism is worth £394 million to Bolton and in creating its new Visitor Economy Report, the council is aiming to increase that figure to £433 million by 2018.

It also wants to increase the number of jobs created by the industry from 5,180 to 5,700 and increase the Food and Drink Festival footfall by a further 20 per cent to 185,000.

The report also detailed the most-popular visitor attractions in the borough last year.

Top of the pile was Bolton Museum, Aquarium and Archive, which the council said brought in just short of 362,000 visitors.

This was followed by the Macron Stadium, home of Bolton Wanderers — which received more than 330,000 match day visitors last year.

The top five is made up by entertainment venues including The Albert Halls, The Victoria Hall and The Octagon Theatre.

Bolton Council’s cabinet member for culture, Cllr John Byrne said he is pleased with the growth of the town’s visitor economy.

He said: “We have been very ambitious and have exceeded my expectations — if you look at the Food and Drink festival, it has just grown and grown.

“One of my favourite events is Ironman, I just think it is a cracking day out and a great atmosphere — watching the athletes come along the finish line outside the town hall is fantastic.

“I regularly speak to businesses and they say there is definitely a boost in their figures when these events are on — they are good for our local economy.”

Cllr Byrne said the council should now be looking to bring even more major events to the borough, adding: “We have proven we can produce the best.”

Top ten visitor attractions in Bolton in 2014

Attraction, with annual visitor numbers:

  • 1.Bolton Museum, Aquarium and archive 361,909
  • 2.Bolton Wanderers Football Club 330,261
  • 3.The Albert Halls 165,000
  • 4.The Victoria Hall 114,009
  • 5.The Octagon Theatre 103,921
  • 6.Smithills Hall 7,532
  • 7.Bolton Steam Museum 4,330
  • 8.Horwich Heritage Museum 3,500
  • 9.Hall i'th' Wood Museum 3,292
  • 10. Fred Dibnah Heritage Centre 3,000

Source: Bolton Attractions Survey 2014