“Thriving” was how Southend-on-Sea described its response to the recent heatwave, with tourism businesses across the resort enjoying the benefits of high temperatures and even higher footfall as daytrippers headed to the seaside in their thousands. The UK amusements sector has served domestic tourism and coastal economy well.
Southend-on-Sea was “thriving” during the heatwave that baked the country during the last week of June, with tourism businesses from ice cream parlours to deckchair rental firms capitalising on the increase in footfall.
As temperatures on the coast hit 39 degrees, thousands of families and daytrippers made the most of the chaos the hot weather caused to infrastructure to head to the seaside and soak up the sun.
“With schools shutting early or closing all day, trains cancelled, events postponed and even bin collections being changed, people took the opportunity to head down to the seafront,” reported the Echo. “But for those working on the seafront, it was business as usual as shops and traders sought to make the most of the rare weather.”
Speaking to the paper, Rossi Ice Cream owner Haseeb Rahimi said “we need this type of weather.”
“The businesses along the seafront depend on the weather, and when it is nice, we get customers.”
Gary Mansfield, of Deck Chairs UK, was renting chairs and loungers to “an ever-growing stream of beach goers,” but was kept from lazing under a sun shade himself by the demands of the business.
“You read the news reports and they say ‘stay out of the sun unless you can help it’, but we’ve got no choice,” he said. “I’ve got a bit of shade under my parasol that I can stand under, but it’s very hard because we’re in it all day, every day. Shade is very hard to find on the seafront.”
Originally published on Coinslot on July 6, 2026. Republished with permission.