History of Torquay - 1945 To Present Day

1945 To Present Day

Since the war tourist patterns have changed considerably. Many more people have the money to travel abroad for their holidays and nearly everyone has a car. This means that fewer visit British holiday resorts, but when they do they do usually travel by car. The British holiday has become a touring holiday with visitors staying only one or two days in each place. The visitor does not bother to book a hotel, but prefers to stay at one of the numerous cheap bed & breakfast establishments instead (b&b's).

With its unrivalled Bay, the English Riviera has been famed for its watersports for many a year and in 1948 the watersports events of the 1948 Summer Olympic Games were held here. The Olympic flame was brought from London and burned for the duration at Torre Abbey Gardens.

Torquay was also hoping to be a part of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games by being the official warm-up venue for the sailing events. The actual events during the Olympics will be held in Weymouth unlike in 1948. However they also missed out on this opportunity and it seems the town will play little part in the Olympics.

In 1950 the EBU, a coalition of 23 broadcasting organisations from Europe and the Mediterranean was formed in Torquay following a conference held by the BBC at the Imperial Hotel on the seafront. The EBU's most well-known production is probably the Eurovision Song Contest organised by its Eurovision Network.

In recent years Torquay has become better known abroad and has received more foreign tourists who usually tour in cars like the British holidaymakers. It is also a major destination for foreign language students, who visit the town for the summer to learn English and see the sights of England.

In October 2005, Torquay as part of Torbay chose its first ever directly-elected mayor, Nicholas Bye, under an electoral system which was later described as "a total failure", Bye receiving votes from fewer than 7% of the electorate. He beat Liberal Democrat Nicholas Pannell in the second round of counting with a total of 7,096 votes to Pannell's 5,197. After the election, Bye noted that "it is quite clear from canvassing that a lot of people did not want an elected mayor."

Since the expansion of the EU in 2004, Torquay has undergone a dramatic demographic shift with large numbers of Eastern European migrant workers settling in the region. Prominent amongst this wave of newcomers are workers from Poland and the Czech Republic, with recent estimates suggesting as many as 5,000 Poles in the region as of late December 2005 with that number expected to have increased since then. The nature of this demographic tends to be transient with most returning to their native country after a set period of work, although increasing numbers are opting to remain in the country and settle down. Reflecting this shift in the population the local newspaper The Herald Express now publishes a weekly Polish column (Polak dla Polakow) and a Polish shop (Polski Sklep) has opened on Lucius Street.