howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
according to figures the traffic movements in january were 13 % up on the previous january.
nice to hear a local success story, i hope that the workforce benefit from it.
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
#2
The full press release from DHB is given below and is interesting for the interpretation it chooses to put on the figures in the table appended.
Given that we are presently experiencing the most catastrophic economic downturn since the great depression in the thirties, how can things be so rosy? The answer seems to lie in the figures that DHB have chosen to highlight and the crucial one which they have chosen to ignore.
Passengers, cars and coaches increased in January. A subsequent press release from DHB attributes this to the record snow falls in Europe coinciding with the school holidays, with skiers heading off for the slopes in droves.
However, the main part of the press release below is concerned with how the freight traffic through Dover bears a close correlation with UK manufacturing output and an inverse relationship to unemployment figures. It goes into details of the constant rise in freight over the last decade and then fails to mention that the figure in the appended table shows that freight fell in January by 2.2 percent. Extrapolated over the year to come, this would seem to indicate a catastrophic decline in prospect.
Bearing this in mind, what do we make of Bob Goldfield's closing statement "We only hope that Dover's continued growth will soon be reflected in the overall state of the UK economy." In what way is a fall in freight traffic of 2.2 percent in a single month a measure of Dover's continued growth?
I have to say that I view this press release as a classic case of using good news in the form of a temporary blip in tourist traffic as a way of masking the true underlying looming catastrophe confronting Dover and the UK, that of economic freefall as demonstrated in the freight traffic starting what may prove to be a precipitate decline. I think that the freight figures were already on their way down towards the end of last year as the recession commenced to bite but were temporarily boosted by the Eurotunnel fire.
My uncomfortable suspicion as to why Bob Goldfield should choose to present the January results as good news is that he is still desperately hoping that his grand plan for Terminal 2 at the Western Docks can still be considered to have any prospect of seeing the light of day. This, to my mind, is a dead duck and perhaps the time has come for BG and Dover to get a grip on reality and recognise the fact.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dover continues to buck economic trend 24 February 2009
Dover continues to buck the UK's economic trend with the number of cars travelling through the port in January increasing by over 20 percent on the same month last year.
In addition, passenger figures for January show a 14 per cent increase and the number of coaches using Dover has increased by 20 per cent on the same month last year. Nearly three-quarters of a million people used the port in January and the number of cars reached nearly 150,000.
The figures come as research into Dover's traffic volumes over the past 12 years by Scott Wilson, the leading international design and engineering consultancy, shows the port of be a gauge of UK performance as a whole. The research highlights the correlation between activity at the port and UK manufacturing and employment since 1996.
Plotted together, the volume of inbound freight through the Port of Dover and the indexed growth of manufacturing output in the UK show an approximately parallel trendline, indicating that an increase in inbound freight corresponds to a proportional increase in manufacturing output. Since 1996, inbound freight at Dover has grown by 115 percent and UK manufacturing output has increased by 7.6 per cent.
According to the same research by Scott Wilson, the volume of outbound freight through Dover shows an inverse relationship with unemployment, with the average annual 1.7 per cent growth of outbound freight traffic, which has increased by 126 percent since 1996, over double the decline of unemployment in the UK in the same period.
"Research of the activity at the port over the past 12 years shows Dover to be a true barometer of the economic condition of the UK as a whole. We only hope that Dover's continued growth will soon be reflected in the overall state of the UK economy," says Bob Goldfield, Chief Executive of the Port of Dover.
Port of Dover
Total 2009 Total 2008 %
Passengers 735,330 646,166 +13.8
Cars 148,470 122,809 +20.9
Coaches 3,976 3,310 +20.1
Road Haulage Vehicles 181,382 185,470 -2.2
Vessel Entries - Ferry 1,645 1,581 +4.0
Vessel Entries - Catamaran 0 20 -100
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#3
This is almost certainly going to be a poor year for the Port of Dover. In fact there was a major conference yesterday of national tourism organisations looking at the best way of capitalisng on the expected boom in people holidaying at home. Not everything is hit by recession but certainly the market shifts. There has been a huge boom in the purchase of cheap food for example. People cut their cloth according to their means in a recession and so they will with travel.
But I think the management of P&O and Seafrance are budgeting for the downturn. Seafrance as we all know took drastic action by cutting more than 800 jobs. Thats in view more of the prospects to come rather than the upshot of the previous years trading.
We spoke about this potential holiday boom before on Doverforum...so lets hope the town can capitalise in some way. I expect nobody from this town was at the national conference on tourism 2009.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
#4
Probably not Paul.
This "downturn" gives us the opportunity and hopefully the impetus to promote Dover to the people of Nord Pas de Calais and the Towns around there.
We need to promote not just the historic sites and attractions which obviously need to be promoted, but the Town's businesses too - good quality shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants.
I am hoping to start talking to local businesses very soon about this and am working on creating a leaflet for distributing in the above Region and Towns; if enough money is available, then adverts in (French) local Towns should to be done.
Cross Border co-operation, perhaps the Town Council could help with this - we are twinned with Calais.
Starting off with LD Lines and the people of Boulogne, Le Touquet, and Dieppe, then (hopefully) SeaFrance and P. & O for Calais and Dunkirk and Norfolkline.
My big worry is, can I do this as an individual, or will it need to be a "body" ? - as far as I am aware, no "body" has picked this up; with the Pound and the Euro being so close in value, it is a golden opportunity for us; I just hope the local businesses see the benefits too.
Roger
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
#5
Well said again, Roger, but as with our earlier conversations regarding this very fact 'a body' is needed, as an individual would not be taken seriously enough. It needs to be officially sanctioned so lets hope that there is a way forward and soon.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
#6
The meeting is on the 25th. of March, then decisions will be made - hope they make the right one this time.
Roger
