1,018,066,642 visitors served.

Bournemouth

Seaside resort and administrative centre of Bournemouth unitary authority in southern England, on Poole Bay, 40 km/25 mi southwest of Southampton; population (2001) 167,500. The tourist industry is important to the local economy, and in 2000 the town won the national ‘Resort of the Year Award’. Other industries include insurance provision, banking, and the manufacturing of communications systems.

History

The area was undeveloped until the early 19th century when landowner Louis Tregonwell built a house on the coastal moorland. Pine trees were planted in the Bourne Valley, and Bournemouth, with its sheltered position, mild climate, and long sandy beach developed as a popular summer and winter resort. In the late 1990s the town centre underwent extensive redevelopment, including the renovation of Bournemouth Square, the Camera Obscura building, and the Lower Gardens. A ‘millennium flame’ was also created.

Features Encouraged by a daily average of 7.7 hours of summer sunshine, Bournemouth's tourist industry is based on a 11-km/7-mi stretch of sand, and two piers - one of which is 305 m/1,000 ft long. The Bourne stream runs through the town centre and is bordered on both sides by public gardens. Bournemouth is home to a famous Pavilion (1929), which is presently a theatre. The Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery features a collection of Japanese art and 17th-20th-century paintings. Bournemouth Polytechnic became a university in 1992, and there is an airport to the north of the town in Hurn. Bournemouth Orchestra was founded in 1893 (in 2001 it became the first major British Orchestra to appoint a female conductor); Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) has sports, entertainment, and conference facilities. There is a marine-themed mosaic, ‘The Bourne Meets the Sea’ in Bournemouth Square. Some of the notebooks and letters of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley are among the exhibits at the Casa Magni Shelley Museum in the suburb of Boscombe.

Bournemouth (authority)