South West Hotels hit by credit crunch

9:00am Monday 5th January 2009

Almost a third of South West hotels, including those in Swindon, report that 2008 takings were down by more than 10 per cent.

Almost half of the region's hotels saw a reduction in overseas visitors, with even more reporting a reduction in UK visitors.

These are among the findings of a survey of South West hotels, conducted by the hotel & leisure team at Bishop Fleming.

For most South West hoteliers, the reduction in overseas visitors was due to Britain not being perceived as a value-for-money destination.

Most hoteliers suggested that the reduction in bookings from UK visitors was the result of poor summer weather.

According to Will Hanbury, head of Bishop Fleming's team: "This is a crucial sector for the South West's economy. Global market conditions are restricting bookings at a time when extra Government red-tape is making life more difficult for this sector."

While most South West hoteliers believe that the advent of cheap flights from the region's airports are good for the regional economy, more than a third say that those cheap flights are reducing the number of UK bookings for family holidays in the South West and making very little difference to the number of overseas tourists coming to the region.

"The role of regional airports and cheap-flights is hugely emotive. It is easy to see their impact on exporting UK holiday-expenditure: it is more difficult to identify a significant contribution to boosting in-bound visitors," he said.

More damning was the verdict of Bishop Fleming's survey of South West hotels on the role of the region's tourism agencies. More than two-thirds said that local and regional tourist agencies make no difference to bookings.

The president of the Swindon Chamber of Commerce, Joanne Taylor-Stagg, who is also the general manager of the Marriott Hotel in Swindon said the growth of cheap flights from regional airports did have a negative impact on local tourism.

"There is definitely more of an exodus of UK tourists than an influx of European tourists to the UK," she said.

"The pound however has recently lost significant value against the Euro.

"This may help to make the UK a more desirable destination as it becomes cost effective to travel outside of the Euro zone. UK tourists may also decide to stay local as the exchange rate makes the cost of a holiday more expensive despite the cheap flights still on offer."

Joanne said the industry needed more support from government.

"There is a lack of overseas marketing and the cuts in funding for Visit Britain are short sighted, particularly when you consider we will be hosting the Olympics in a few years.

"Now more than ever we need to ensure the UK perceived as a good value holiday destination. We have so much to offer, we need to make the most of it and see growth in the tourism sector again."