Tourism businesses urged to find a “flood buddy”

An appeal has been issued to tourism business closed by the floods in Cumbria to point customers in the direction of “flood buddies” or to simply “recommend a friend.”

Businesses contacted by visitors should point them in the direction of neighbouring tourism businesses which are open, said Ian Stephens, Chief Executive of Cumbria Tourism.

It is known that hundreds of visitors with trips planned in Cumbria and the Lake District or thinking of coming to the county, are now telephoning and emailing businesses to check if they are open and that they can still visit.

Mr Stephens said: “The worst thing tourism businesses could do is to say ‘we’re closed, we’ve had a flood, ring back when we’re open again.’ All that will do is kill tourism in their community and send vital custom to another part of the country.

“A better way would be to identify a flood buddy nearby– perhaps another place to stay or place to visit in their area - so that any visitors expressing an interest in coming here are properly signposted to places that can help and are open.  They should also update their websites to say whether they are open or not and if not, refer people to our new Visitor Information Helpline, their nearest tourist information centre or www.golakes.co.uk so visitors know that they have other options.

 “Not only is this excellent customer service - it will ensure that tourism businesses whose operations are totally unaffected by what’s happened don’t suffer secondary damage.  It will take two minutes of a businesses’ time to do but could potentially be worth thousands of pounds to the economy of Cumbria.

“I appreciate that for some businesses, recommending their rivals might not be uppermost in their minds but we have to change that attitude and look at tourism in Cumbria as a family.  It is not the time for competition - we should all be working to help each other and help to get the area back on its feet.”

A special visitor information helpline – 01539 825070 – was set up at Cumbria Tourism’s headquarters last week to give visitors up-to-the-minute advice and reassurance, and let them know there are hundreds of businesses open and waiting to welcome them as normal.

Mr Stephens reiterated the message of last week and said that Cumbria is open for business and those that are not should recommend a friend.

One in every five jobs in Cumbria relies on tourism and the industry brings in over £1.1 billion a year to the largely rural economy, which relies on over 15.3 million visitors a year.  Many other non-tourism businesses like shops, cinemas, garages, trade services and petrol stations in the area rely on the tourism “pound” and the run up to Christmas is a key time for all.

Cumbria has over 14,000 “rooms” to stay in across the county so a very small proportion of the overall stock was actually affected.  However, many more businesses could end up being affected if people mistakenly believe that everywhere suffered to the same degree as they’ve seen in the media.

Cumbria Tourism has already kicked off a pre-Christmas marketing campaign to lure visitors back with a series of specially designed major adverts appearing across eight national newspapers over the next three weeks, commencing with the Daily Express, Guardian, Sunday Telegraph and Observer last weekend.