You have to be in Reading to know it and love it

25th September 2025

Direct visits, along with related travel media and social media coverage of a destination, play a key role in shaping perceptions of a place. For many years, Festival-goers who come to Reading briefly in late August, as well as business visitors dashing through the town centre to their meetings and those travelling through Reading on the train, shaped the world’s view of Reading. It was a perception that didn’t really chime with the reality, based as it was, on a snapshot of Reading.

Today, the streams of visitors who come here to walk in the footsteps of a young Jane Austen, pay homage to Oscar Wilde, walk or cruise the Thames, view the only full-scale replica of the Bayeux Tapestry or just ride to the end of the Elizabeth Line to see what is there, take away a different impression. Tourism is changing perceptions of Reading.

There is now a wider understanding of the historic importance of Reading - as home to one of Europe’s largest religious (or otherwise) buildings in medieval times, the ruins of which are still a draw to this day. Parliament sat in Reading Abbey, a King of England was buried here and thousands of pilgrims came to pray or find cures.

A travel writer visiting Reading recently for the first time for an article that retraces the paths of those pilgrims along the St James’ Way wrote; “Admittedly, I’d been slightly sceptical upon arrival in Reading. This Thames Valley town screams commuting and shopping. So it was refreshing, as I stood before the ruins of a medieval abbey, tucked away above the River Kennet, to experience the sensation of preconceptions being dismantled.”

Visits can also be the start of a love affair. From a first visit, an opinion is formed, which may be shared or impact future decisions. First time visitors often look in the windows of estate agents imagining what it would be like to live there – the first step in relocation, company owners, here briefly for business, may consider whether it might make a good base for their staff, and as investment follows positive perceptions, then more visitors come.

While no-one would claim that tourism is one of the key drivers of the Reading economy, the visitor economy is an important part of the mix. Nearly £400 million is spent in the local economy every year by the seven million people visiting Reading for leisure, business or simply visiting family and friends. Over 6700 jobs are supported directly or indirectly in Reading in bars, hotels, restaurants, conference centres and museums, shops, river cruise boats, walking guides and bowling alleys.

A month on from another successful Reading Festival, a piece in The Telegraph comes to mind. “From pretty lidos to Oscar Wilde’s prison, there’s more to Reading than music festivals. The Festival may be drawing the crowds this weekend but there is year-round appeal in this oft-derided Thames Valley town.”

This World Tourism Day (27 September), let’s celebrate the jobs and wealth that visitors create here and the impact of the visitor economy on shaping perceptions of our occasionally-derided town. After trying a Sweeney’s pie and a pint of Ding, wandering through the Abbey Ruins and lingering over afternoon tea onboard a Thames River Cruise, who wouldn’t love Reading? But you need to be here to find that out!

Alex Brannen is Tourism Lead for REDA (Reading's Economy and Destination Agency)