Dickens anniversary should attract £4m to Kent
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Gad's Hill Place - home
to Dickens until his death in 1870
Our whole county is abuzz with
Dickens - as Kent helps mark the 200th anniversary of the
world-famous author's birth tomorrow.
Today we start a week-long look at the
wordsmith's life - and his many connections to our county.
Kent is expecting a £4m tourism boost
this year - thanks to our greatest ever author.
The buzz around Charles Dickens'
anniversary is making our county a magnet for literary travellers,
according to Sandra Matthews-Marsh, chief executive of Visit
Kent.
Dickens lived in several towns in the county, before being
attracted back to Higham to Gad's Hill Place in Higham, where he
wrote such greats as Great Expectations and The Mystery of Edwin
Drood.
Ms Matthews-Marsh said: "He wrote so
evocatively about places in the county, so throughout all the books
you've got these wonderful passages about Canterbury and
Broadstairs, Rochester, Chatham - just almost every place he went
to in the county.
"We know that people come to Kent for
its literary connections already and Dickens is one of the big
elements within that.
"We think it will give us another £4
million boost directly as a result of the anniversary, which is
very significant."
Many events are also planned through
the year, to attract more visitors and mark the 200th anniversary
of his birth.
These include a free exhibition this
week at Eastgate House in Rochester, and a reading by Gerald
Dickens - the author's great-great-grandson on May 16.
Ms Matthews-Marsh added: "Audiences are
now seeing the great adaptations that are made for film and TV and
that's bringing a whole new generation to Dickens' work.
"There's a new blockbuster due out in
the summer, with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter in Great
Expectations.
"Certainly Americans absolutely love
Dickens and will be coming to Kent to explore all the places he
talked about."
She said 10% of users of Visit Kent's
website are interested in Dickens which, she claims, could
translate to up to 400,000 extra visitors that might come to Kent
as a result of the anniversary.
The KM Group's Dickens: A Love
Affair with Kent supplement is free in all KM Group paid-for
newspapers this week. It will also be available from Linda
Evans levans@thekmgroup.co.uk.
Friday, February 03 2012
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