Canterbury invented the English tourist trade
- Becket murdered in the cathedral, 1170
- The most visited place in England
- Chaucer wrote the Tales around 1387
- And wrote them in English
How Canterbury grew
A murder, a route, a crowd, and a set of stories in the language people spoke.
Thomas Becket is murdered
In the cathedral. Canterbury became the most visited place in England, and an entire economy grew around the route — inns, badges, guides, souvenirs and the medieval equivalent of reviews, passed by word of mouth along the road from London.
Pilgrims, and the first English road trip
After Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became the most visited place in England. An entire economy grew around the route: inns, badges, guides, souvenirs and the medieval equivalent of reviews, passed by word of mouth along the road from London.
Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales about that journey around 1387, and in doing so did something quietly radical — he wrote it in English, at a point when serious writing was expected to be in Latin or French.
A destination, a route, a crowd and a set of stories told in the language people actually spoke. It is a recognisable shape.
What that means if you trade in Canterbury
Canterbury is a small city with three universities and an enormous visitor trade, which makes its year lumpy: term times, summer tourism, and quiet stretches between.
Businesses here either serve the transient population or the resident one, and the two barely overlap.
What Canterbury businesses ask us for
Visitors or residents
Two economies in one small city. Write for the one that pays your bills.
Say your term-time hours
Student-facing trade lives and dies by the academic calendar. Publish it.
Cover east Kent
Whitstable, Herne Bay, Faversham. The city alone is small.
Three universities and a pilgrimage
Canterbury has been a destination for eight hundred and fifty years, and it still is: the cathedral, the World Heritage designation and the Chaucer connection bring visitors year-round, with heavy international traffic through the Kent coast ports and the Channel Tunnel nearby.
On top of that sits a large student population across several institutions, which changes the city completely between term and vacation. A business planning around summer weather rather than term dates will misread its own trade.
The two economies rarely overlap. Visitors want the historic centre; students want value and convenience; residents want neither the crowds nor the queues. Most local businesses do better by picking one.
How Canterbury businesses sell
To people who arrived this morning. A large share of your potential customers have no local knowledge at all, which makes being findable and legible worth more than being long-established.
Shops, cafés and hospitality
Visitors decide on their phone while standing in the street. Fast page, real hours, and where you are relative to the cathedral.
Student services
The academic year is your calendar. Right in September, quiet in July, and priced for a student budget.
Trades and home services
Name the villages — Whitstable, Herne Bay and the surrounding parishes are part of the same trading area.
Tourism and accommodation
Booked well ahead and often from abroad. Multiple languages are worth considering here more than in most English cities.
Why FastSites works here
Chaucer wrote in the language people actually spoke, which is still the best advice anyone has given about selling to visitors. A plain page beats an ornate one.
Live in days, published price, built mobile-first and light — most of your visitor traffic is on a phone, often roaming. Tell us whether you are selling to visitors, students or residents.
How well do you know Canterbury?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Canterbury quiz · 1 of 5
What happened in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170?
Common questions
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