Cornwall’s famous Eden Project is to slash 80 jobs after the number of tourists visiting the eco-park slumped to a 10-year low.

Tim Jones, chairman of the South West Business Council, told the BBC that visitor footfall in 2024 crashed to its lowest level for a decade, plunging the destination into financial uncertainty.

The Eden Project said it “explored every option” before making the cuts, insisting it would “ensure the long-term economic stability of the organisation”.

The 400-strong workforce will be slashed by 20%, with 19 taking voluntary redundancy or retirement.

A spokesman for the Eden Project blamed “considerable economic challenges” for the job-cutting measures.

“A number of factors, including the contraction of the visitor economy across the South-west as well as significantly increased costs to businesses, have made this process necessary,” added the spokesman.

“[It] will set us on a path to continue our vital work as an environmental charity and a thriving visitor destination for our second quarter century and beyond.”

The spokesman said “every effort” was “made to minimise the number of job losses, with alternative roles or retraining offered where possible”.

The attraction, which has an average rating of four out of five stars on Tripadvisor and was described by recent visitors as a “fantastic project” and a “brilliant family day out”, put 20 jobs at risk in 2023.

The centre, which houses rare and tropical plants in its iconic glass biomes, recorded a £1.5million loss in its latest financial year, despite a year-on-year rise in visitor numbers of about 50,000 in the year to March 2024.

Companies House documents show the Eden Project’s annual turnover rose from £23.2million to £24.2million in the same period, but pre-tax loss still rose substantially from £868,000 the previous year.

Malcolm Bell, a former executive chairman of Visit Cornwall, told a two-day tourism summit in Truro this month that cost-of-living woes, alongside higher taxes and bad weather, led to 2024 being the “flattest” year for tourism in his memory.

“When consumers aren’t confident, they cut back on their spending and one of those things is holidays,” he told the BBC.

According to Cornwall Opportunities, tourism contributes 15% to the county’s economy each year. That includes four million overnight stays and 14million day trips, injecting about £2billion and creating 35,695 jobs.

A rise in National Insurance for employers, which comes into effect in April, is also likely to affect destinations like the Eden Project.

In a survey for the British Retail Consortium, 46% of leading retailers said they were planning to reduce in-store staffing numbers because of the National Insurance tax hike from 13.8% to 15% per employee.

A group of 81 retail chief executives have written to the Treasury warning that the industry’s costs could spiral by over £7billion this year due to the National Insurance change and an increase in the National Living Wage.

A government spokesman previously told the Express: “Thriving hospitality and tourism sectors play a crucial role in growing the economy.

“We have ensured that more than half of UK employers will either see a cut or no change in their National Insurance bill from April and are providing 40% business rates relief ahead of introducing a permanent, new lower business rate from 2026.”