Cumbria’s tourism chief is asking people who were scheduled to visit the Lake District before their trip was called off because of coronavirus to re-book as soon as they can.
The message from Gill Haigh, managing director of Cumbria Tourism, for visitors to postpone instead of cancel their Lakeland plans comes ahead of the start of English Tourism Week on bank holiday Monday.
“We would like to thank those visitors who are supporting our accommodation providers by postponing rather than cancelling. The Lake District, Cumbria, is not going to disappear. So, we are really looking forward to welcoming our visitors back soon,” said Ms Haigh.
She named The Lakes Distillery at Setmurthy near Bassenthwaite as being among the many tourism-based businesses with special offers currently on Cumbria Tourism’s website visitlakedistrict.com . “We’re really excited to offer people more than 75 different incentives to return to The Lake District, Cumbria for a well-deserved break later this year, thanks to a wide range of gift vouchers which can be redeemed at participating businesses when the time is right,” she added.
With the majority of tourism businesses still closed to the public because of Covid-19, English Tourism Week is going virtual for 2020. The annual national campaign is run by VisitEngland and Ms Haigh is calling on all six of the county’s MPs to record their own video messages of support for the event which is focusing on the tourism industry’s Covid-19 recovery efforts.
“English Tourism Week is designed to highlight tourism as a critical sector for not only Cumbria, but the entire country’s tourism economy. It is not only good for business but pivotal in helping residents enjoy their way of life here too. It is so important for the Government to be constantly reminded of this, which is why we have invited all of our local MPs to record some important messages of support for this world-class destination.
“We are very fortunate to have MPs with such passion and understanding of how crucial tourism is here in Cumbria, and how it is paramount to pull out all the stops to ensure it is safeguarded to enable our guests, employees and residents to continue to enjoy The Lake District, Cumbria, as a great place to live, work and visit,” she said.
Before Covid-19 struck, the tourism sector in Cumbria contributed more than £3 billion to the local economy and supported almost 65,000 local jobs, with more than 47 million people visiting the county in 2018.
