Travel & Holidays in later life

The Lancashire coast resorts are fully aware that they can't run a holiday industry by living off the past. But - like a slow-moving tanker - it takes time to change course. 

The biggest holiday tanker is Blackpool, which had hoped to re-invent itself as the Las Vegas of the North. 

The idea remains to polish up the tacky Golden Mile, and create more sparkle by creating a cluster of entertainment and possibly some gaming casino hotels. The big money is still there ready waiting, now that they know that Blackpool has not been chosen for Britain's first super-casino. Meanwhile the lobbyist wheeling and dealing continues, maybe for some smaller gambling halls. 

Back in Victorian times and in early 20th century, the entire Lancashire coast was a family paradise of non-stop sandy beaches from Morecambe in the north to Lytham St Anne's, the Ribble and beyond

Millions flocked there, eager for the time-honoured roller-coasters, bars, guest-houses and eating-places. But then Costa Brava and Benidorm were discovered, where sandy beaches had more sunshine, bars had cheaper beer and discos kept going till dawn, only 2 or 3 hours' flight away.

Hence the Masterplan Project which aims to re-launch 19th-century Blackpool into an international year-round tourist attraction, with casino hotels as the magnet.

Peter Moore - a leading figure in Britain's leisure industry - is the tourism adviser of the Masterplan team. He said the plans were complex but achievable because Blackpool has the "history, the heritage and the infrastructure."

He promises exciting new attractions, more entertainments and a spectacular new convention centre to recapture the fading Conference trade.

Of course it all takes time - maybe 10 or 15 years to completion. Meanwhile fresh life is already breathing into key landmarks like the Illuminations, the Promenade and Blackpool Tower. A typical step along the way was opening of the 116-room Big Blue Hotel - the only hotel on-site at Blackpool Pleasure Beach - with great views of the white-knuckle Big One roller-coaster.

Further north, Morecambe's former nickname was Bradford-on-Sea, thanks to a rail connection from Leeds and Bradford that still takes only two hours. Holidaymakers from Yorkshire streamed in every year, with some mill-owners even commuting. 

Today it's hard to imagine that in the 1930s Morecambe could rival Blackpool, with several music halls, a funfair, a revolving tower, a boating garden, an aquarium, a Summer Pavilion, a Winter Gardens, two piers and a sparkling-white Midland Grand Hotel built 1933 in Art Deco style.

Most of those features have disappeared. But the Midland Grand, for many years a derelect eyesore is nearing completion of a full restoration and should be open by the summer of 2008.

The development company restoring this former haunt of the wealthy to its original glory is called Urban Splash and is famed in Manchester for inventive designs which have won many architectural awards.

The chairman, Tom Bloxham, has an uncanny knack of picking up-and-coming areas and creating self-fulfilling prophecies of regeneration. Other people start to feel confident that things are changing, and are inspired to fund similar creative schemes. It all generates demand and action where none previously existed. 

So the rebirth of the Midland Grand could mark an upswing in Morecambe's fortunes. Bloxham's motto is "to leave cities better than you found them." He has done it for Manchester; next stop Morecambe. 

Meanwhile, the tide has began to turn for the resort since start-up of a TERN public art project, which is already changing the face of Morecambe.

Consider these other destinations in the North West

CHESTER - going for Romans, shopping & bats

LIVERPOOL- Beyond the Fab Four 

MANCHESTER - is more than United

SHIP CANAL - Cruising on the Manchester Ship Canal

Eric Morecambe: Life's Not Hollywood - It's Cricklewood - An entertaining account by Eric's son, Gary, of life with one of Britain's favourite comedians. Worth reading while you're relaxing on the beach.

Lancaster Morecambe and Heysham: Britain in Old Photographs  - Looking back to the 19th-century scene.

Images of Blackpool - a fascinating collection of photographs from the archives of the Evening Gazette - Blackpool's local newspaper.