Taking into account all of my findings I believe that Aldeburgh is currently within the consolidation stage of the Butler model.
The consolidation stage states that there are many established shops within the area and I can verify this by using figure 1, my Goad map. Furthermore, figure 1 displays the shop variety within the High street, evidently showing numerous well established touristic shop industries. For instance, out of a total 56 shops constructing the high street I found in total 72.74% were aimed for both tourists and residents; implying that Aldeburgh is adapting their products to cater for tourists. Moreover, 16.36% of shops are aimed directly at tourists whereas 10.9% of shops are aimed at residents; therefore showing that tourist shops are greater than residential shops by 5.46% consequently indicating that tourism is now dominating the local economy as stated in the consolidation stage. Additionally, figure 7D (a famous board game monopoly which has been modernised by Aldeburgh, for they have made an Aldeburgh version) strongly supports that investments in the tourist industry are occurring. Consequently, as more specific retail products are being made, aimed at tourists in turn proves consolidation as tourism is becoming the main part of the economy.
My strongest source of evidence is figure 5 (the obtained average house price in Aldeburgh compared with the average house price for four other large tourist destinations on the East Suffolk coast) and I found that Aldeburgh’s 3 bedroom house price average was £488,849.50 was the highest out of the 5 touristic locations. Greater than the second highest house average (Lowestoft tourist resort) by £96,355.1; inarguably, this shows that Aldeburgh has a very high sustained average house price whereby exceeding other tourists resorts, categorising in the consolidation stage as prices are remaining steadily high. Moreover, figure 3 supports the reasoning for the high house prices, for when examining the upkeep of the area, generally the maintenance of the area was well managed. For example, when looking for signs of graffiti along the 5 different locations (along transect) no graffiti was present; therefore, showing that the environmental quality of the area is being sustained. Consequently, as the resort is being well managed the secondary home ownership is increasing and now a large proportion of the housing properties are secondary homes; therefore supporting the consolidation stage. Figure 8 supports my point as the interviews with the estate agents showed an increase of at least 10% purchased properties in Aldeburgh this year rather than last year. Additionally, a larger proportion of second home ownership than home ownership was found, for instance when asking Bedford’s estate agents they stated that there is approximately 60% secondary home ownership to 40% home ownership proving consolidation as there is a higher proportion of secondary homes within the area.
In this point I am proving that many residents are working in tourism as an aspect of consolidation. The residential questionnaire, (figure 2F) shows that 67% of residents questioned work in Aldeburgh; therefore, implying that tourism has expanded job opportunities as residents can find work from tourism. However, my obtained data from figure 2G describes 67% of residents work in estate agents and 33% in retail, occupations not directly aimed at tourists. However, the data described by figure 2J shows that 100% of residents believe tourism growth is steady, yet high proving consolidation stage. Figure 8 supports my point further, for when asking all three estate agents ‘Are there a lot of tourists buying holiday properties in Aldeburgh?’ all of them replied yes. Concluding, the resident’s occupation is not directly aimed at tourists; although, as tourism is growing this positively influences the retail market/ estate agents as more properties are being purchased from the increasing number of tourists;
