Great Yarmouth's longstanding tourism champion is hanging up his clipboard after 26 years.

Alan Carr, who was responsible for bringing weekly fireworks, Maritime Festival tall ships and sea shanties to the seaside town, has spent nearly three decades enticing visitors to try out the town's delights.

Among his achievements as Visit Great Yarmouth chief executive have been the first Great Yarmouth Air Show and helping to bring a huge regeneration seafront project to the borough.

He was headhunted from Skegness to drive tourism here and masterminded TV and radio marketing campaigns and fact-finding visits to other resorts as well as accessed funding. The schemes he championed are credited with bringing £600m into the local economy.

A new chief executive officer for Visit Great Yarmouth, the Great Yarmouth Tourism and Business Improvement Area is now being sought to build on his successes when he retires in December.

Visit Great Yarmouth chairwoman Lyndon Bevan said his contribution had been “outstanding.”

“Alan has worked tirelessly, and often in his own time, to promote tourism and work towards improvements. He embraced the Great Yarmouth area and the wealth of all it has to offer, and went above and beyond because he believed in the place he made his family home,” he said.

"He had worked with a board of business leaders to for a successful industry that turns over more than £600 millions every year and built a reputation for staging high profile events attracting new visitors because of the great mix that appeal to a wide audience.”

He was instrumental in the regeneration of the Great Yarmouth seafront and its new pedestrian friendly layout, the ‘InteGreat’ project, he said.

“For some 20 years he helped lead the Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival to success after success. A great achievement was leading the partnership between local authority and tourism industry as Chief Executive of the Greater Yarmouth Tourist Authority (now also a Business Improvement District).

“His has given loyal and inspiring service to both the local authority and the industry partnership Tourist Authority and we wish him a happy retirement with his family and grandson.”

Four years ago Alan chatted with his famous showbiz and comedy counterpart Alan Carr on Radio 2’s Alan & Mel’s Summer Escape show to talk up the delights of Great Yarmouth to a new audience.

The show’s producer, Malcolm Prince, praised his "witty banter".