Grand Pier Re-Opening Will Be A Shot In The Art To Town's Economy

Almost three hundred local people have now secured jobs on Weston’s Grand Pier, after a recruitment spectacular dubbed Weston’s Got Talent.

The new jobs, along with the re-opening of the Grand Pier, after the devastating fire of 2008, will provide a shot in the arm to Weston-super-Mare’s economy.

Tourism in the West Country is worth more than £300 million per annum and Weston-super-Mare is the largest local destination. The Grand Pier is expecting to attract more than four million visitors a year.

Grand Pier bosses expect the income to increase five-fold when they re-open the attraction this summer and they hope that their investment in the town will spur other sea-front stakeholders to invest in their properties and offering. They currently see the lack of quality hotel accommodation in the town as the biggest threat to their success.

The 300 new jobs created at the Pier will go a long way into improving the local economy and unemployment statistics. Weston’s Grand Pier employed less than 100 people before the fire, so over 200 completely new jobs have been created to operate all the new Pavilion’s attractions and run the newly created wedding and conference facilities.


Pier owner Kerry Michael said: “I fully appreciate the impact the closure of the Pier has had on the town and I am very excited indeed to be on the verge of re-opening what will now be a year-round attraction. We have worked very hard to get the Pier open as quickly as possible. Our concern is that the public realm works will be the biggest deterrent for visitors this coming summer.

“We hope the appointment of John Penrose MP as Minister for Tourism will have a positive effect on Weston and we are looking forward to working with him”.

“We are sure that our newly created conferencing and wedding facilities will bring a whole new group of visitors to the Pier and into the town itself, as will our evening events programme.

“The Pier is a king pin in the economy of the town, from the coach driver who buys petrol to the day trippers who buy fish and chips on the Prom”.


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