In birthplace of the beach holiday, where are the tourists?

Clutching her plastic spade, Willow skips along the beach, followed by her grandmother, Gay Brice. As Ms. Brice holds out a bucket, Willow digs deep into the sand, a smile on her face. It’s the electric smile of a 2-year-old playing on the beach on a sun-dazzled day.

Ms. Brice, a local hairdresser, hasn’t forgotten that feeling. “I love the openness, this scenery,” she says, gazing at a shoreline bisected by a pier poking into the blue-green sea. Then she turns back to watching her granddaughter whom she’s minding for the day.

This pebbly beach on England’s southern coast isn’t exactly teeming on a midweek afternoon. Schools aren’t out for summer yet. But when the school term does end later this month, many families will head not to English seaside towns, but to resorts across southern Europe in search