tourism

Welcoming Britain back: tourism businesses set out post-lockdown plans

, , ,

I personally, particularly in the light of the PM’s revised guidance, wonder why those places with lots of open space can’t begin opening up again, as long as visitors remain responsible. I was recently looking at the impact of the coronavirus on tourism businesses in parts of Lincolnshire and I am very worried indeed about the future, not just for the businesses themselves but their wider supply chain and the seasonal workers they won’t be able to take on this year. This story tells us:

Tourist boards across the UK are setting out plans for a phased reopening of attractions and businesses as they endeavour to salvage some of the 2020 season. “We can’t afford to wait until lockdown’s over and find we’ve not got the plans in place,” said Gill Haigh, chief executive of Cumbria Tourism. “The question is how we reset.”

It’s a big question. Discussions around what to open and when are taking place against a backdrop of huge public anxiety about coming out of lockdown. An Observer poll at the weekend found that the majority of people believe it’s too soon to ease restrictions, and local people are understandably furious with those do flout the current rules, as happened this week in the Lake District.

The challenge for destinations is giving tourism the shot in the arm that it desperately needs while reassuring visitors, employees and residents that they will be safe. As a result of that delicate balancing act, holidaying in the UK this summer may well feel like we’ve time-travelled back to the 1950s, before the advent of affordable foreign travel: there will be day trips to beaches, parks and gardens; we’ll be able to buy an ice-cream but won’t be dining in a crowded restaurant; if it rains we won’t be sheltering in the nearest museum or indoor activity centre.

Outdoor spaces in rural and coastal areas and attractions with large grounds will be the first to welcome visitors, not just because those are places where social distancing can be maintained but because, post-lockdown, people will be drawn to nature for its calming effects.

Public urged to re-book UK rural holidays once Covid-19 crisis ends

, ,

Everything is connected. Many farms rely on their diversified income to survive. I fear that the loss of tourism income may well deal a death blow to a significant number of smaller farmers in more precarious farming enterprises. This call for action from the CLA makes you think in relation to this issue. The article tells us:

The public have been urged to re-book cancelled holidays in the British countryside once the Covid-19 crisis is over or else it could ‘cripple’ the rural sector.

Millions of people have had to cancel their Easter holiday plans because of the spread of the coronavirus in the UK.

But the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents 5,000 rural tourism businesses, is now urging them to re-book ‘once it is safe to do so’.

Rural tourism is worth a huge £18.5 billion a year to the economy and employs over 600,000 people.

Yet, almost overnight, many businesses have shut down for an unknown period of time. According to the CLA, this is having ‘crippling consequences’.

Many farms now provide holiday lets, camping, bed and breakfasts and farm stays as a way to support their business.

‘Coronavirus holidays’ stoke rural fury

, , ,

This is the flip side to the previous story lamenting the loss of tourists. Im not surprised that the virus is bringing rural/urban tensions to the fore. The story tells us:

The Covid-19 crisis has prompted some to seek to escape the city. Green spaces are more appealing than cramped apartments and quick transmission rates. Culturally, city dwellers have long imagined country life to be cleaner, happier and healthier than being in conurbations. Current war metaphors in politics and the media might also cause people in the UK to think of the Blitz, when more than 1.5million Britons were evacuated to the countryside — with good reason. But the virus is not a bomb nor a visible enemy. Data from genetics professor Tim Spector’s Covid-19 symptom tracker app already suggests that people leaving the city have unwittingly packed the virus with them.

In reality, the impact of second homes can’t be separated from the wider social and economic processes that continue to change the countryside. Change can be necessary and innovative. Change can also cause harm. Research by the Prince’s Countryside Fund found that rural residents across Britain are feeling increasingly remote. Physical distance hasn’t changed. Instead, shops and schools have closed, services centralised and options squeezed. The same sense of getting away from it all that charms city dwellers can feel bleak to locals.

Coronavirus hasn’t created anger that wasn’t already simmering. Those privileged enough to slip the city for a second home haven’t created the challenges rural communities face. But they have exposed the inequalities between those who can relax in the rural idyll, and those struggling to find a house, get a job or catch a bus. We won’t solve these differences with spray-painted signs or forced resignations. But we do need to solve them.

Locals accuse Lake District authority of turning region into a ‘theme park’

, ,

Its fascinating to sit on the outside looking at this issue. It seems to me that for the Lake District we could read a number of iconic British landscapes where people have to live their lives just like you and me. This story tells us:

The authority responsible for the Lake District has become the focus of angry protest from residents and campaigners over accusations that it has turned the region into a theme park.

Keswick town council passed a historic and unanimous vote of no confidence against the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) over its decision to resurface a path to make it more accessible to vehicles. Keswick represents almost 20% of the population of the Lake District.

The unprecedented vote in Keswick comes after a series of disagreements between the park authority and local councillors, residents and campaigners, with the latter claiming that commercial interests are being put ahead of the needs of people who live and work in the community.

Five days ago senior leaders at the park authority voted against a ban on recreational off-road vehicles which devastate farm tracks, churning up soil and exposing the bedrock beneath, leaving them impassable to farm traffic.

The park’s rights of way committee voted to continue to allow 4x4s and trail motorbikes to use two lanes across farmland left to the trust by the author Beatrix Potter.

The latest dispute focuses on the reinstatement of a foot and cycle path from Keswick to Threlkeld which was destroyed by Storm Desmond in 2015.

Friends of the Lake District claim that using tarmac along the former railway line will compromise the historic and rural character of the route and make it more dangerous to use in icy weather.

Turner Contemporary: Did art transform ‘no-go zone’ Margate?

, ,

For those of us struggling with an agenda for small towns, this tale of revival linked to Ronnie Bigg’s favourite seaside retreat is inspirational. It tells us:

Margate’s £17.5m art gallery Turner Contemporary opened in 2011 with hopes it would spearhead the regeneration of one of the most deprived parts of the UK. Since then the gallery has had several hit shows and is hosting this year’s Turner Prize. But how much has it changed the surrounding town?

Tracey Emin grew up in Margate in the 1970s, when the north Kent resort was still attracting crowds of holidaymakers to its “golden mile” of sand, jellied eels, buckets and spades and Kiss Me Quick hats.

But by the 1980s the town had become a “no-go zone”, she recalls.

As visitors found other destinations abroad, Margate – like other seaside resorts – had fallen into sharp decline. 

At its lowest ebb, it was an unloved town of boarded-up shops, deserted trains, empty streets and derelict arcades. Its theme park had closed and it was home to some of the poorest communities in the country.

Emin has never wavered in her passionate support for her hometown, believing in its beauty, its sunsets and skies. These famously also inspired the Romantic artist JMW Turner, after whom both the Turner Prize and the Turner Contemporary are named.

he brand new glass-clad Turner Contemporary opened its doors eight years ago on the seafront site of a cottage where JMW Turner had stayed.

Emin predicted visitors would discover a “different, edgy, sexy” town.

Since those first visitors arrived, the town has undergone a transformation.

The theme park Dreamland has reopened, the quaint streets of the Old Town have filled up with quirky cafes, stylish restaurants and vintage shops, and across the town, galleries, studios and cottage industries have opened.

Rambling old houses have become desirable again and even the gardens have been smartened up. 

Now Margate makes the news for its hipsters, its London cool and celebrity residents, such as The Libertines frontman Pete Doherty.

The North Coast 500 generated £22.8m for the north Highlands’ economy last year, according to new research.

, ,

There is controversy about the rural congestion at peak times caused by this Scottish “route 66” but it is increasingly important to the small towns which thrive on its throughput of traffic. This story tells us:

Also known as the NC500, the 516 mile-long (830km) touring route takes in a network of roads around the region’s north, east and west coasts.

The study by Glasgow Caledonian University’s Moffat Centre for Tourism also reported 180 new jobs were created in 2018 linked to the route.

The NC500 was launched as a tourism concept in 2015.

According to the study, north Highlands tourism businesses such as tour operators and camper van rental firms reported year-on-year growth of 16% from 2014-2018. 

An additional £13.4m in sales was also generated for accommodation, attraction and retail businesses on or near the route in 2018.

What’s it like to live in a castle?

, ,

This is all about life at Bamburgh Castle. If things continue as they are I fancy seeing if I will be allowed to retreat behind its walls….The article tells us of Mr Watson – Armstrong:

He was 22 when he took over running the castle with his mother, becoming sole custodian after her death in 1999. He moved to a nearby farm in 2001 but the castle is still a home with 12 lived-in apartments. It is also a tourist attraction receiving 160,000 visitors a year, as well as a wedding venue.

Maintenance is a full-time job for a team of five and, “much like the Forth Bridge”, work will never be finished. But Mr Watson-Armstrong is keen to keep the castle in his family. “I’m determined to never let it fall into public body hands,” he says.

“It costs hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to maintain and run it, but I would rather meddle in the affairs of the castle myself than have someone who has not lived there, or does not know it, in charge.” His son William, 29, is taking on more responsibility for the castle with the hope of increasing visitor numbers and improving the experience.

‘Arrogant diners’: villagers angry at Michelin restaurant’s expansion plans

,

Its often difficult to mix very successful tourism initiatives with settled rural communities as this story reveals.

With dishes such as raw beef with caviar, razor clams with almonds, and wagyu nigiri, a tiny village restaurant in County Durham is attracting foodies from across the British Isles.

The Raby Hunt restaurant has received glowing reviews since being bought by the Close family in 2009. It is north-east England’s first and only two Michelin-star restaurant.

For many, this would be a cause for celebration, but for some villagers in the rural hamlet of Summerhouse, its inclusion on haute cuisine’s food map has bought nothing but misery. And now a turf war has ensued.

Numerous villagers have claimed the plan of the chef-patron, James Close, to combine the inn with the adjoining cottage to provide extra guest bedrooms, a temperature-controlled wine storage room and improved facilities, will aggravate the problems the popular venue is already causing.

They say they are “prisoners” in their own homes because of “arrogant diners” at the restaurant – where prices start at £130-a-head – causing parking issues.

Many of the 140 villagers say they are fed up, claiming that a constant stream of wealthy diners and delivery vans is blocking the bus stop and side roads.

Tensions escalated when the exclusive restaurant announced a plan to expand into an adjoining cottage to provide extra guest bedrooms. Visitors to the restaurant can also book a room for £180 a night.

In one of several objection letters to Darlington council, two residents, Justin and Tiffany Fear, said the lack of car parking spaces had left them “prisoners” in their own homes.

Fear, 40, said residents, including elderly people, were having to park miles away from their homes to make room for diners.

Battle of Bosworth Field: historians fight to stop construction of test-track where Richard III died

,

I love the visitor centre at the mis-identified site of the Battle of Bosworth. This article makes me cross because whilst there has been no real attempt to interpret the actual site of the battle for visitors, when it suits a business to impinge on one of the most important landscapes in our island story access and intrusion seem to be a different matter. This story tells us:

Richard III has already suffered the indignity of being buried under a car park in Leicester, but now his final battleground could also be tarmacked over, under controversial new proposals.

A ferocious battle has commenced at Bosworth Field over plans to turn part of the historic site into a 155mph test-track for driverless cars.

The Battle of Bosworth in August 1485 was the deciding skirmish in the Wars of the Roses, which saw the death of England’s last Plantagenet king and brought the Tudor dynasty to throne.

But part of the site belongs to Japanese-owned automotive specialistsHoriba Mira Ltd, who have applied to Hinkley and Bosworth Borough Council to build a £26 million 1.2 million square foot track to test autonomous vehicles.

The area is part Historic England’s registered battle zone, and historians claim that if the track is approved on Tuesday, it will destroy an important area, as well as blocking the view from where Henry Tudor first saw the army of Richard III.

Bath revives plan to impose tourist tax

I am sure this issue is being at least considered in a number of rural tourism hot spots. This story tells us:

The city of Bath is planning to lobby the government for the power to charge its many visitors a tourist tax.

A levy of about £1 or more could be added to the accommodation bills of the million or so tourists who stay in the Georgian city every year.

Councillors see it as a way of raising extra cash in times of austerity, but many hoteliers are reluctant to charge tourists, believing even a small additional cost will put off some visitors and claim such a scheme would be difficult – and expensive – to administer.

Bath has long considered raising a tourist tax but had previously been told by Westminster it would not be allowed to.

After it emerged at the end of last year that Birmingham might be given the go-ahead to impose a levy on visitors to help pay for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Bath decided to revive its plan.

Load More