Haldon Pier was built mainly to improve facilities for the yachts of wealthy visitors and for pleasure boats to take people on short trips. In this way, Torquay was increasing attractive to the rich who might come to stay in the summer season. It already had a reputation based on its climate, scenery and quiet avoidance of many of the noisy attractions of resorts that attracted large numbers of people on day trips from big cities. Torquay was too far away from large urban centres for this feature of the growth of resorts in the second half of the 19th century.